The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate
Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate (R) recently joined the Brandon and Christopher Show Podcast about his role as Agriculture Commissioner. The Alabama Gazette's Brandon Moseley and the Alabama Political Contributor's Christopher Peeks host the weekly news/information podcast.
Pate said that the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries is actually in charge of one of the largest state agencies.
"We're a relatively big state agency," Commissioner Pate said of the Department of Agriculture and Industries. "We have 350 employees, probably operating 50 to Depending on what grants we got that year, $50, $60 million state agency. And so, you know, it's much larger than obviously the lieutenant governor's office. And of course, we probably impact people's lives as much as any constitutional office, between food safety for the state, weights and measurements."
"Of course, we make sure that everybody, whether it's a gallon of gas or what you pay at the scales in front of the cash register at Piggly Wiggly is right," Pate said. "To the price scanners when they scan that barcode on the back of your green beans is right. And, you know, with pesticides, you know, no pesticides can come in to the state of Alabama and be sold without registering with us."
"We operate 11 different labs, four animal diagnostic labs," said Pate. "I might miss one, but a pesticide residue lab, a food and drug lab, chemical lab, a seed germination lab, and two B labs."
Pate owns a large and very successful landscaping business in the Montgomery area.
"I've always said that being in business for 37 years really," helped prepare him for the role of Agriculture Commissioner Pate said. "There's a lot of constitutional offices that don't, being in business don't necessarily help you as much in, you know, I'd say the auditor, treasurer, probably you want the treasurer to have a banking background or something. An attorney general's obviously got to be a lawyer; but the Commissioner of Ag, or being Governor in particular, yeah, you're really running a huge business. I've never felt overwhelmed by this job or like they're asking me to do something that I was outside of my wheelhouse. And really here, other than being in private business, you got so much support. I mean, we actually have an IT department, which in a small business, I mean, that it's thrown off, You don't have IT, you know, in-house IT. We have general services. So, you know, just anything happens. Like if the clock fell off the wall, you know, I just called general services, they put it back up on the wall. You know, there's a lot of things."
Pate said that, unlike some politicians, he did not grow up dreaming of being in office.
"The thing about me that's probably different than some is I've never really dreamt, I never, till I started running, for Commissioner of Ag, I never even thought about being Commissioner of Ag." Pate said. "It wasn't until a guy came in my office and asked me, and I told him no. And then actually my wife came in later and said, "I really think you need to think about that. That might be the perfect thing. And, you know, the kids were grown by then, out of college, and, you know, 37 years of working. I'd been mayor (of Letohatchee, AL) 14 years. I probably did need something, a new challenge. And this certainly was that."
Pate is term limited from seeking a third consecutive term as Governor. A few months ago, Pate was being mentioned as a possible candidate for Governor. Pate has put those plans on hold because he believes that Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) is going to run for the position.
"In the same way, as far as being governor, lieutenant governor, it's nothing, it's like I told Tuberville, our coach, I said, I'm not disappointed at all, because it's not something I've always thought about being," Pate said. "I'll find something useful to do. I feel like God opened a door, and it might not even be running for office."
Pate has been mentioned as a possible Lieutenant Governor candidate. Secretary of State Wes Allen and Lee County Pastor and schoolmaster Dean Odle are the only two declared candidates for Lt. Gov.' but Pate, former Secretary of State John Merrill, and Public Service Commission President Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh have all been mentioned as possible candidates.
The Republican primary is scheduled for May 26, 2026 – though the Legislature is in the process of moving that up to May 19, 2026.
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