{"id":245627,"date":"2026-04-11T23:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T23:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/245627\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T23:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T23:38:12","slug":"patrick-blames-republicans-for-fort-worth-loss-will-that-work-this-fall-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/245627\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick blames Republicans for Fort Worth loss. Will that work this fall? | Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick thinks he knows why Fort Worth elected a Democrat to the Texas Senate.<\/p>\n

He knows exactly whom to blame: Republicans.<\/p>\n

To Patrick, you are a Bad Republican if you don\u2019t vote for any hardline MAGA candidate chosen by the party poobahs or backed by the two West Texas guys who spend their oil billions trying to impose Christian theocracy.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if you march to the polls in November and vote for every Republican, even the ones who want the government to round up and deport one-third of the U.S.<\/a> or prosecute in vitro fertilization as if it\u2019s mass murder<\/a>, then you are an Official Dan Patrick Good Republican.<\/p>\n

In recent speeches, including a major appearance in Austin, Patrick has repeatedly blamed Republican voters<\/a> and a third-place Republican candidate for the party\u2019s Jan. 31 loss in a special election runoff to fill the Fort Worth state Senate seat.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re one of the 21,699 voters who chose one of two Republican candidates in the Nov. 4 special election but then either didn\u2019t show up in the runoff \u2014 or, like 1 out of 5 Republicans, outright rejected the party\u2019s candidate \u2014 then to Patrick, YOU are the problem.<\/p>\n

YOU are what\u2019s wrong with the Republican Party, Dan says.<\/p>\n

Not the party\u2019s choice of flawed candidates.<\/p>\n

Not its ongoing MAGA lurch.<\/p>\n

Not its insistence on teaching Bible scripture in public schools and hanging Ten Commandments posters as political force-fields, but not showing living witness for love, grace or Christian faith.<\/p>\n

Patrick continues to single out Southlake Republican Leigh Wambsganss\u2019 loss to Fort Worth Democrat Taylor Rehmet on Jan. 31 in a Senate district dominated in 2024 by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The two will meet again in the general election Nov. 3 with the seat really on the line. Right now \u2014 partly because Patrick refuses to recognize him<\/a> or assign him any duties \u2014 Rehmet hasn\u2019t really won the seat.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s only won a chair and an office until the Senate convenes again Jan. 12.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

Sen. Taylor Rehmet, a Fort Worth Democrat, is sworn into office at the Texas Capitol on Feb. 19.<\/p>\n

In Patrick\u2019s keynote speech to the Texas Public Policy Forum on April 8, he continued to openly belittle Rehmet<\/a> along with those who had supported Southlake Republican John Huffman, a distant third-place candidate in the special election with Rehmet and Patrick\u2019s hand-picked candidate, Wambsganss.<\/p>\n

Rehmet, Patrick said, was \u201ca 33-year-old single guy no one ever heard of.\u201d<\/p>\n

He made \u201csingle guy\u201d sound like a slur.<\/p>\n

And if no one ever heard of Rehmet, it\u2019s amazing how he got elected president of the machinists\u2019 union at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, one of the largest mother lodes of votes in Tarrant County.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He] just slapped his name on the ballot for the hell of it,\u201d Patrick said.<\/p>\n

Then the 11-year Republican lieutenant governor, in the Senate for a total of 19 years, pretended to not even know a Democratic state senator\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis name is Taylor \u2014 \u201c Patrick paused and squinted into the audience \u2014 \u201cREM-ett? Re-METT?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, he has nothing to do right now,\u201d Patrick went on.<\/p>\n

Unless he wins in November.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what worries Patrick.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The map of the Texas Senate District 9 special election runoff shows Democrat Taylor Rehmet in blue, winning boxes across Tarrant County into Hurst and Bedford, and Republican Leigh Wambsganss winning Southlake, Keller, Westlake and much of northwest Tarrant County.<\/p>\n

Republicans go into the fall with a ballot that includes some far-right MAGA insurgents \u2014 probably Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, comptroller candidate Don Huffines, maybe Westover Hills Republican Bo \u201cDeport 100 Million People\u201d<\/a> French for a seat on the commission that oversees Texas energy production.<\/p>\n

Republicans generally hold about a 7-point edge in Texas.<\/p>\n

A typical election would finish 53%-47% or 54%-46%.<\/p>\n

But that means if only about 1 in 12 voters is mad enough at Trump to switch to a Democrat \u2014 say state Rep. James Talarico for U.S. Senate, Sen. Sarah Eckhardt for comptroller or Rep. Jon Rosenthal for that energy commission \u2014 then Republicans lose a statewide election.<\/p>\n

It would be the first since George W. Bush ushered them into their current 32-year winning streak.<\/p>\n

If Paxton or Trump\u2019s endorsed candidates like Huffines or Wambsganss lose in November, is that their own fault?<\/p>\n

Or Republican voters\u2019?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what Patrick said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have one nasty race, and I\u2019m just going to call it for what it is, for the U.S. Senate, and it troubles me,\u201d Patrick told the audience.<\/p>\n

Win or lose, Paxton or U.S. Sen. John Cornyn should endorse the November Republican candidate, Patrick said:<\/p>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks to members of the media at the Austin Marriott Downtown on March 03, 2026 in Austin, Texas. A runoff race is ahead between Cornyn and opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n

In other words, Cornyn\u2019s voters should support someone he\u2019s said should be in prison<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf 10% to 15% of their sides don\u2019t turn out and vote, James Talarico is going to win,\u201d Patrick said, adding that might cost Republican control of the U.S. Senate. He said later that Republicans also might even lose control of the Texas House.<\/p>\n

Then, Patrick revisited Fort Worth and Tarrant County and blamed Republicans for not supporting a religious conservative candidate from Southlake.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201c74,000 Republicans did not turn out to vote for her and she lost by 14,000 because they stayed home.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Tarrant County is \u201ca red district,\u201d Patrick said. \u201dSo, anyone in this room who thinks we\u2019re a red state, [Gov. Greg] Abbott can\u2019t lose, Patrick can\u2019t lose, that\u2019s just not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Patrick actually said this: \u201cWe have more to do. … We\u2019ve only been in power for 23 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that ends, it\u2019s clear whom Dan Patrick will blame.<\/p>\n

Not Dan Patrick.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In 1984, when Republicans and Democrats were still competitive in Texas, now-Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had quit his job as a Houston TV sports anchor and owned a bar, Dan and Nick\u2019s Sportsmarket. He became a conservative political radio talk show host in 1988.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick thinks he knows why Fort Worth elected a Democrat to the Texas Senate. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1864,116,118,117,86879,41713,93583,2424,7838,1863],"class_list":{"0":"post-245627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-dan-patrick","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","11":"tag-fort-worth-news","12":"tag-republican-candidate","13":"tag-republican-candidates","14":"tag-republican-voters","15":"tag-republicans","16":"tag-special-election","17":"tag-texas-senate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}