Far Right Watch: Dan Patrick

As Lieutenant Governor of Texas (2014-present), Dan Patrick presides over the Texas Senate where he has considerable power to dictate what proposed legislation moves forward and what proposed legislation never sees the light of day. He has frequently insisted the separation of church and state is a “myth,” and has used his pulpit to erode religious freedom protections in the state. 

• Affiliations
  • Texas Senate (President)
  • Republican Lieutenant Governors Association (Member)
  • President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission (Chair)
  • Texans for Dan Patrick (PAC)
  • Second Baptist Church – Houston megachurch (Congregant)
  • Turning Point USA (major donor)           
• Follow the Money…
  • The following give big money to Dan Patrick:    
    • Texas for Dan Patrick $2,470,063.29
    • Jeff Yass (pro-voucher billionaire) $400,000 last election cycle
    • Defend Texas Liberty PAC has given millions
      • Defend Texas Liberty PAC is a far-right political action committee funded primarily by West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, known for pushing the Texas Republican Party further right. 
    • Elon Musk Revocable Trust has contributed $500,000
  • The following are Dan Patrick’s biggest contributions:
    • Patrick has pledged $1M in campaign funds to expand Turning Point USA chapters across Texas high schools/colleges         
    • Patrick has given $2M to the Texas Freedom Fund for the Advancement of Justice, formerly known as Defend Texas Liberty PAC (see above).
• Controversies
  • “…there is no such thing as ‘separation of church and state’”
    • “For too long, the anti-God left has used this phrase to suppress people of religion in our country,” Patrick said. “During all 7 Commission hearings, witness after witness testified that the so-called ‘separation of church and state’ was used to take their God-given religious liberty rights away.”
  • Patrick has referred to the United States as “a Christian nation” and echoed many of his political allies in arguing that there “is no separation of church and state. It was not in the Constitution.”
    • “We were a nation founded upon not the words of our founders, but the words of God because he wrote the Constitution,” Patrick said in 2022. 
  • Patrick has called on the Senate to further expand the government’s role in religion and its place in public life
  • In his role as Senate President, Patrick has approved bills that require the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms, allow unlicensed religious chaplains to act as school counselors, and expand religious instruction during the school day.
  • His Legislative priorities have included “ending child gender modification”