Dan Patrick Says 25 of 30 Legislative Priorities Have Passed

Commentary: Reagan Reed

Amid a barrage of criticism from the right for holding up constitutional carry, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick issued a press release on Thursday celebrating the passage through the Senate of 25 out of 30 of his legislative priorities.

From Patrick’s statement:

“This legislative session brought the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, which made it difficult for committees to meet as frequently as in the past, and the winter storm, which continues to require our attention as we sort through our analysis of what happened and put solutions forward. Still, the Texas Senate has managed to move our 30 conservative priority bills forward on time. The senators put in long hours and worked tirelessly to keep us on schedule. As of today, 25 of the priority bills are on their way to the Texas House and the remaining priority bills are in the process of being passed.”

Many of these are great policies, and I applaud the lieutenant governor for getting them passed. But besides the fact that this really looks like an attempt to change the conversation after all the heat he has received on the constitutional carry issue, it makes one wonder why he can’t also get constitutional carry passed.

By pointing out the number of his priorities that he has been able to get passed by the upper chamber, Patrick is undermining his own excuse for holding up constitutional carry, which is, “At this point we don’t have the votes on the floor to pass it.”

The fact that Patrick has been effective at getting the votes in the Senate needed to pass legislation he deems a “priority” demonstrates that he could probably find the votes needed to pass constitutional carry if he really wanted to. His actions indicate so far that it is obviously not a priority to him.