Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said he fired a campaign worker who posted an obscene reference to Hillary Clinton on Miller's official Twitter account.
The Austin American-Statesman obtained a letter Miller sent to Department of Agriculture employees apologizing for the furor the tweet caused.
Miller campaign spokesman Todd Smith said the fired employee worked for a "third-party vendor" hired to do social media.
Rather than use Clinton's name, the tweet used a sexually explicit, derogatory term for women. Posted a week before Election Day, it was quickly deleted.
Miller's campaign initially said his account was hacked, but later said it mistakenly retweeted a tweet that "contained a derogatory term."
Miller has caused social media stirs before. Last year, he appeared to endorse a nuclear bombing of "the Muslim world."
