Tommy Merritt

Who is Tommy Merritt?

Thomas Charles "Tommy" Merritt is a businessman from Longview, Texas and a Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives. Merritt represented District 7 from January 1997 until January 2011. In March 2010, he lost the Republican nomination to conservative-Republican candidate David Simpson.

Seeking another political comeback, Merritt finished second in the March 4, 2014 Republican primary for the statewide position of Texas Commissioner of Agriculture. He polled 248,568 of the ballots cast. In the runoff election on May 27, Merritt was defeated by a former House colleague, Sid Miller of Stephenville, 362,573 votes to 320,434.In the primary, Miller had also led Merritt, 35 to 21 percent. The three eliminated candidates, Eric Opiela of Karnes City, Joe Cotten of Frisco, and Mayor J. Allen Carnes of Uvalde, held a combined 44 percent of the primary ballots, critical to the outcome of the runoff contest in which turnout dropped sharply.