Lt. Gov Patrick visits Linden

A rural bus tour for Texas Lieutenant Governor made a stop at Cass County Historic Courthouse in Linden at noon Monday, Sept 26.

“Lt Gov. Dan Patrick is visiting all rural areas of Texas on a bus tour,” said Carolyn Lance, Cass County Republican Party of Texas chair. “His bus was met by Judge Travis Ransom, Senator Bryan Hughes, District Judge Bill Miller and other Cass County elected officials.”

Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe and District Attorney Courtney Shelton and many others met Patrick on the steps of the Linden’s prized, historic courthouse—originally constructed in 1861 it is the only continuously functioning antebellum courthouse in Texas. After shaking hands and taking photos officials led Patrick to Uncle Juan’s Restaurant where he met with a packed house of local residents.

“He spent time visiting with everyone in the restaurant,” Lance said. “He was interested in meeting the people and hearing about the jobs and interests of everyone he met. He would often sit at tables and in the booths to have a quality visit.”

Lance said Sen. Hughes surprised locals with his appearance at the event and that the crowd enjoyed sharing stories with him, as well.

Though he didn’t formally address the crowd at Uncle Juan’s, Patrick heartily canvassed the room, shaking hands, giving hugs and speaking to everyone– Whether they be county officials, families or staff. He took photos with those who asked and took interest in hearing the political concerns of patrons while also discussing their hobbies, jobs and countless other topics.

Lance said Patrick was scheduled to stop in Texarkana later that afternoon. His plan is to visit rural areas of Texas instead of just the big cities.

Patrick took time to speak to Journal-Sun staff about his focus in the upcoming Texas lieutenant gubernatorial election, for which he is running for a third term. Patrick has served as 42nd lieutenant governor of Texas since January 2015, under Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

The Incumbent will face off with Democratic Candidate Mike Collier in November.

This is Collier’s second attempt to unseat Patrick for Lt. Gov. and, according to The Texas Tribune, Collier is courting Republicans, reminding voters of his past as a Republican.

Patrick said he runs with principled conservative leadership.

According to his Website, ltgov.texas.gov/about/, ‘principled conservative leadership’ means “leading the fight for life and liberty in Texas including securing the border, reducing property and business taxes, standing up for the Second Amendment and addressing Texas’ infrastructure challenges to assure that our state continues to flourish economically.”

Patrick is also said to have presided over the most conservative and productive sessions of the State Senate in Texas history.

Patrick told Journal-Sun staff that the “Joe Biden Border is one of the biggest issues facing Texans right now.

“It’s the Joe Biden economy and it’s the Joe Biden Border,” Patrick said. “Mike (Collier) is a perennial candidate … he’s run two other times statewide and lost. The thing about Mike Collier which surprises me is him campaigning in Texas and saying there’s no daylight between him and Joe Biden.”

“So, essentially, he’s running as ‘Joe Biden’,” he said.

Patrick said the reason the border is the number one issue for Texans right now is the growing number of illegals entering the country. In the past 20 years, Patrick said we were apprehending about 450,000 illegal immigrants per year.

“This year it’s 2 million,” Patrick said. “Any law enforcement will tell you we catch 1 out of 3 and if we’re catching 1 out of 3, we are apprehending 2 million— that’s another 4 million that got in, plus the got-aways.”

“Got-aways”, Patrick said, are the illegal immigrants that “we see and can’t catch because they get away before we get there.”

Even some people in Texas don’t realize how big the border between Texas and Mexico is, Patrick said.

“A lot of people don’t realize our border is 1,254 miles, I think. That’s further than the distance from Atlanta, Georgia to the state of Maine,” Patrick said. “That’s the entirety of the east coast.”

Patrick said he’s tired of the Biden administration throwing us under the bus on illegal immigration.

“Trump actually had the border pretty secure last year, working with Mexico,” Patrick said. “Normally we spend about 400 mill dollars of Texas taxpayer money for border security, but this year it’s 4 billion.”

Patrick said the increase is due to bringing the National Guard in, among other things Texas is doing to try to secure the border.

As far as Mike Collier’s two big issues, the power grid and education, Patrick had a few things to say.

“I’m the one that went in there and told some people they needed to resign and we’ve put forth two good bills, Senate bills 2 and 3,” Patrick said. “But here is the key: there’s a really big difference between the Democrats and the way we think.”

“We have too much unreliable energy in the form of windmills,” he said.

According to Patrick, Texas has about 85,000 watts of power, but 30,000 watts of that are from windmills or solar panels– Leaving Texas with 55,000 powered by natural gas, coal and nuclear.

“On a really bad winter or summer day we need 7579000 megawatts, so Mike Collier and the Democrats want to destroy the oil and gas industry,” Patrick said. “They dont want natural gas plants, even though they’re the cleanest burning and the most affordable.”

Patrick said Collier would have Texas on completely green power, with more windmills and more solar, which Patrick says could become a problem.

“When the wind doesn’t blow and if the sun’s not out we aren’t going to have the power we need,” Patrick said. “ We need more natural gas plants. It’s my number one priority.”

As far as education is concerned, Patrick said no one has put more money into education than he has as Lt. In 2019, Patrick said he put 11 billion into education, including a 2 billion dollars set aside for teacher pay raises.

Education is 52 percent of the budget in Texas, while 35 percent is healthcare and 10 percent is public safety.

“We reduced the school property tax, where school property taxes cannot be increased more than 2 ½ percent per year. If they are above that, then the state picks up the tab,” Patrick added School districts were growing in Texas at about 7 percent per year in revenue and according to Patrick, tax payers couldn’t keep up with that.

“So we said ‘We are going to hold you 2 ½ percent’… but the superintendents said ‘Well wait a minute we need more money than that,’” Patrick explained. “So we pick up the tab through our sales tax collection–We capped school taxes at 2 ½ percent” “I know a lot of people had their appraisals go up across the state but when they get their tax bills in October, they’re going to see that their school bill might have gone down, is about even or has a very little increase,” Patrick said.” So we’ve kind of ended those days that when your appraisal went up your tax rate went up the same rate.”

The outspoken Republican told Journal-Sun staff that his opponent doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.

“Mike Collier, like every other democrat that I know these days, doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Patrick said.