After picking up an expected endorsement from President Donald Trump, Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday announced that he will be seeking a fourth term as the leader of the Texas Senate.
The lieutenant governor wields immense political power in Texas politics as president of the upper chamber of the Legislature, deciding which policies will get top priority, when to schedule floor debates and who will serve on the chamber’s committees.
Overseeing a body of 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats this session has given Patrick latitude to pass broad swaths of conservative policies without compromise. Just over halfway through this session, the Senate has voted to mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms, dismantle university programs that promote diversity and inclusion and cut taxes for property owners.
Since he was elected lieutenant governor in 2015, Patrick has exerted pressure to pull the Senate to the right, working to unseat members whom he considers insufficiently conservative or disloyal to his policy aims.
While seeking a third term in 2022, Patrick, who is now 75, indicated that he would not seek re-election, but reversed that declaration soon after winning that election.
In his announcement, the lieutenant governor bragged that “we have already passed the most conservative agenda in Texas history – including school choice, property tax relief, investing in our water infrastructure, our electric grid, banning non-citizens from voting, and returning prayer and the Ten Commandments to our public schools.”
“School choice” refers to the creation of a state-run voucher program to use public money to cover private school tuition for Texas families, a top priority for Patrick and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott this session. The two tried to pass a similar measure in 2023, but it failed under opposition from rural Republicans and a fierce fight for public school funding.
Patrick, who also served as a state senator, has proudly aligned with Trump since before he was a central figure in national Republican politics, calling the president “my friend and ally” in his announcement. He chaired Trump’s state presidential campaigns in 2016, 2020 and 2024, something that the president cited in his endorsement.
Likewise, Trump has vocally supported Patrick and Abbott since winning re-election last year, and has thrown his public support behind their push for a voucher program.
“Dan has been an incredible friend to our Movement, helping us WIN BIG in the Primaries and General Elections,” Trump wrote in his endorsement on his social media platform, Truth Social.
No Democrats have announced that they will run against Patrick in the 2026 election. But even if Democrats enter the midterms with a huge advantage, riding a wave of frustration with Trump’s recent tariff announcements that roiled global financial markets, any challenger would face a huge obstacle in Patrick, who had $33.5 million in his campaign war chest according to his latest campaign finance report.
“Down in Texas, I think that there’s enough of a red cushion that you don’t worry about that,” Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University, told the Dallas Morning News.
