In 2014, Friedman made another bid for state agriculture commissioner. He finished a strong second in the Democratic primary, forcing a runoff election with his party's top vote-getter, the politically unknown Jimmy Ray "Jim" Hogan (born c. 1950), a farmer and widower from Cleburne in Johnson County, southwest of Fort Worth, whose campaign was conducted mostly from the public computers in his hometown library. Friedman polled 184,992 (37.7 percent), behind Hogan's 190,205 (38.8 percent), but ahead of rancher and former educator Hugh Asa Fitzsimons, III (born 1954), of San Antonio, who received a critical 114,953 votes (23.5 percent). Fitzsimons carried the endorsement of the Democrat nominee for lieutenant governor, his hometown State Senator Leticia Van de Putte, who is running on the ticket headed by State Senator Wendy R. Davis of Fort Worth. Friedman lost the May runoff to Hogan, 54 percent to 46 percent, who then faced Republican Sid Miller in the November election.