Dan Patrick Backs GOP Senators Changing Rules to Curb Vikki Goodwin's Powers
The outgoing lieutenant governor said a simple Senate majority can rewrite the rules. He called Goodwin's win fair and square but did not say which powers to move.
Outgoing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Monday that Republican senators should change the Senate's rules to take legislative power from his Democratic successor, Vikki Goodwin, Texas Public Radio reported.
Speaking on "The Mark Davis Show," Patrick said, "I think the Senate should do that." He added that "the lieutenant governor derives her power from the Senate. Sixteen out of thirty-one senators, a simple majority, can change the rules."
He did not say which powers should be moved, TPR reported. No rule change has been filed or adopted.
A fair election, a rules fight
Patrick lost on Nov. 3. TPR reported Goodwin received about 5.08 million votes, or 51.7%, to Patrick's 4.48 million, or 45.6%, a margin of about 599,000 votes. She is the first Democrat elected lieutenant governor of Texas since 1994 and will be the first Democrat to hold the office since 1999. She takes office in January.
Patrick said the result was legitimate. "The election was fair and square. I have no issues with that whatsoever," he told Davis, according to TPR. "We respect that election. She won fair and square."
Republicans will still hold 19 of the Senate's 31 seats when the 90th Legislature convenes Jan. 12, 2027. That is more than the 16 votes needed to rewrite the rules.
Patrick blamed the GOP's statewide losses mainly on economic frustration and weaker rural margins, not on conservative policy. "People can agree with you culturally but still vote against you if they feel economically stressed," he said. He also said he will not run for office again and plans a new venture, Patrick Strategies, to push conservative legislation.
Power that lives in the rules
We explained the legal layout last week in Republican Senators Can Strip Vikki Goodwin of the Powers Dan Patrick Used. The Constitution Gives Her Far Less. The Texas Constitution gives the lieutenant governor few formal duties, including presiding over the Senate. Most of the modern power — assigning committee chairs, deciding which bills reach the floor, naming conferees — comes from Senate rules the chamber adopts at the start of each session. Senators can change those rules.
According to The Texas Gazette, which drew on the Tribune, KPRC 2 and others, Scott Braddock of The Quorum Report said GOP senators met after Goodwin's win to discuss whether they could strip the office's powers, and he called a reduction likely, though "it'll be criticized as a power grab." The Tribune said it sought interviews with 14 Republican senators last week and none responded. Goodwin has said she expected pushback and has been talking with senators from both parties, according to reporting cited by the Gazette.
Dock Line has not independently confirmed those caucus meetings. They are attributed to those outlets.
Legal is not the same as wise
The Senate has a right to write its own rules. Republicans have done it before; in 2015 they lowered the threshold for bringing bills to the floor from two-thirds to three-fifths, the Tribune has reported. Doing it after voters chose a Democratic lieutenant governor is still legal. It is also a choice that will be judged in public.
If senators believe the rules give one person too much power, they can make that argument in daylight and apply it evenhandedly, not only when their party loses the gavel. If they simply do not want Goodwin to use the same tools Patrick used for 12 years, they should say so plainly. Voters can tell the difference.
Proverbs 20:10 says, "Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord." A rule that is sacred when your side holds it, and optional when the other side wins, is a divers weight.
Patrick was right to concede the election was fair. Senators should now decide, in the open, whether they will govern with the office the voters filled or hollow it out first. Texans will be watching which bills then live or die in a Republican Senate facing a Democratic House and a Democratic governor.
