TEXAS, USA — To say there is a lot riding on the March 5 Republican primary in Texas would be the understatement of the year.
The battle between the warring factions of the GOP will come to a head. When the dust settles following the election, Texans will know if school vouchers have an immediate future in our state and what the next legislative session in 2025 will look like.
Twenty-one Republicans in the Texas House voted against school vouchers during the last special session. Gov. Greg Abbott is targeting them during the primary, even endorsing some of their opponents.
We asked Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick if he thinks they’ll flip enough Republican House seats to secure a future for school choice in Texas.
Five House Republicans who voted against vouchers have retired, so they’ve already secured those votes.
That only leaves another eight seats or so.
“We believe that there will be enough turnover of other seats, or enough convincing of people, that they should vote for school choice,” Patrick told us on Inside Texas Politics.
And it’s not a secret that there’s no love lost between Patrick and Speaker of the House Dade Phelan.
Many far-right conservatives in Texas feel Speaker Phelan hasn’t done enough in the House to push conservative legislation. And they’re upset that he continued the tradition of awarding some committee chairs to Democrats, sometimes choosing expertise over party.
Patrick argues that he and Gov. Abbott have a mandate from the people following their convincing wins in 2022 by more than 1.5 million votes combined.
“We have an obligation to do what we said we were going to do. And if Dade Phelan and some members in the House are stopping that, a handful out of, a handful, a dozen out of 85, then we’re going to fight for the people of Texas who elected us. I think that’s what they want us to do. We’ll work out everything after it’s all over,” said Patrick.
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