Luke Warford tries to break the Republican hold on the Railroad Commission by focusing on the power grid and climate change

Luke Warford, the Democratic candidate for Texas Railroad Commission, speaks at a Beto O’Rourke rally in Austin on Sept. 6. Warford is trying to unseat commission Chair Wayne Christian. (Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune)

Luke Warford has spent the last few months trying to educate voters about what the Texas Railroad Commission actually does, going on a train tour across Texas to draw attention to the commission’s “misname” while churning out TikTok videos skewering the agency and his opponent.

The 33-year-old former Texas Democratic Party staffer is challenging Republican incumbent agency Chair Wayne Christian, who has served on the three-member commission since 2016. Warford is focusing his campaign on last year’s power grid failure — when a winter storm knocked out lights and heat for millions of Texans for days and left hundreds of people dead — by trying to connect the catastrophe to the Railroad Commission and Christian’s leadership.