After serving seven years in the Texas Legislature, Sen. Dan Patrick, R–Houston, announced June 27 he intends to run for lieutenant governor of Texas in the 2014 election. Patrick will likely face off against incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, land commissioner Jerry Patterson and agriculture commissioner Todd Staples.
"Recent events in the Texas Senate have confirmed the feeling that I have had for a while now," Patrick said. "We need new leadership in the lieutenant governor's office that is unapologetically conservative and will get results."
In a May poll conducted by the Wickers Group, Patrick had an 8 percent lead over Dewhurst in the Houston media market, with about 42 percent support from 400 Texan voters.
"The office of lieutenant governor is supposedly the most powerful in the state and a Republican has held it for over a decade, yet so little has been done to address border security, debt and property tax relief," Patrick said. "It's time for new conservative leadership."
