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Lt. gov. Dan Patrick said Tuesday he was “absolutely” running for re-election in 2026, a reversal of previous comments he made that this would be his last term.
“I really love what I do,” Patrick said, praising the collegiality of the Senate he chairs. “I’m in good health and just won by 830,000 votes, so why not come back? I think we will be in good shape by 26 in elementary and general.”
Patrick won a third term last year by 12 percentage points, defeating Democrat Mike Collier. Patrick said ahead of this election cycle that if he wins re-election in 2022, “that will be my last term.”
“About time,” Patrick said in July 2020. “I’m kind of a term-limited guy. That’s 12 years as Lieutenant Governor if I’m blessed enough to win again.”
With the 2026 election still more than three years away, Patrick’s announcement is particularly noteworthy given the deadlock of ambitious Texas Republicans who have been waiting for open statewide office. This group includes a number of GOP senators in Patrick’s own chamber.
Patrick made the comments at a day-long conference in Austin hosted by The Texan, a Texas political news site started by former GOP Senator Konni Burton.
As part of the interview, Patrick also outlined a comment he made in his campaign concerning some supporters of school choice, which will be a major issue in this legislature. Patrick had said on a radio show that lawmakers would “bar” rural Texas in a school election program, nodding to longstanding opposition from rural Texans who fear such initiatives will undermine their public schools.
On Tuesday, Patrick said he made the comment “on one of my 15-hour days and I really didn’t say that properly.”
“As for bracketing, I wasn’t talking about bracketing the parents,” Patrick said. “What I was talking about was finding a way to harness the schools so we can get the law through and the parents still have school choice, but we have to do something to get those votes, to get those Republicans off of it.” to persuade them to vote for it by telling their principals, ‘You’re not going to lose money if you lose a handful of students.’”
Patrick has long advocated programs that allow parents to use government funds to send their children to schools outside of the traditional public school system, including private schools. But things took a new lease of life at this session, with support from Gov. Greg Abbott that is as clear as ever. Patrick said during his inaugural address earlier this month that he and Abbott were “everything in the school choice” and vowed they would protect rural schools.
Such legislation is likely to get into the House of Representatives, where rural Republicans have typically been key to blocking school-choice proposals. Patrick had a bitter relationship with House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and he signaled Tuesday more conflict could come as the Senate goes to work for the 140-day session.
“I look forward to working with the Speaker, but I make no apologies for handing the House a conservative agenda,” Patrick said. “I try to stay out of fights, but I don’t let people watch and make excuses.”
Phelan recently rebuffed a push by a small group of House Republicans to ban Democratic committee chairs, a practice Phelan has defended as a worthwhile tradition. Patrick noted that he was “eight years ahead” of this movement when he took office in 2015, significantly reducing the number of Democratic committee chairs in the upper chamber. He announced his latest committee appointments Monday, and only one body, the Criminal Justice Committee, continues to be chaired by a Democrat, Senator John Whitmire of Houston.
Patrick defended Whitmire, saying he is the Dean of the Senate and “above all” an expert on prisons. Patrick reiterated that if Whitmire leaves the Senate, the lieutenant governor would replace him with a Republican — Whitmire is running for Houston mayor in November’s election.
Patrick has repeatedly said he wants to stay out of House affairs, but he suggested conflict would arise if a conservative priority in the Senate was held up in a Democrat-led House committee.
“If somewhere a Democrat controls an important committee and we don’t get a law out of it, that’s a problem,” Patrick said. “That’s a problem.”
In addition to the 2026 election, Patrick addressed the 2024 presidential election, in which he supports former President Donald Trump’s comeback bid. Patrick, who ran both of Trump’s previous campaigns in Texas, was asked about the possible candidacy of Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who has emerged as Trump’s most serious threat in the primary.
“I just don’t know Ron DeSantis,” Patrick said before briefly praising his position as Florida governor. “I have nothing negative to say about him – I think he did a really good job – but I’m a Trump guy.”
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