{"id":48056,"date":"2025-11-13T15:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/48056\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T15:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:07:12","slug":"mike-collier-to-challenge-dan-patrick-as-an-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/48056\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Collier to challenge Dan Patrick as an independent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\tAudio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/about\/ethics\/#ai-policy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AI policy<\/a>, and give us <a href=\"https:\/\/airtable.com\/appFeleeKVUN0Iytx\/pagPG40gbkU0EfjIr\/form\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Collier, a two-time Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, announced on Thursday that he is again running to be the state\u2019s second-in-command \u2014 but this time as an independent. <\/p>\n<p>Collier, an accountant and auditor, lost his previous bids to Lt. Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.texastribune.org\/dan-patrick\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dan Patrick<\/a>, the powerful Republican who presides over the state Senate, in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/11\/07\/blue-wave-texas-democrats-beto-orourke-midterms-2018\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2018<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2022\/11\/08\/dan-patrick-mike-collier-texas-lieutenant-governor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2022<\/a>. Running as an independent, he is branding himself as a protector of public education who also aims to \u201crestore fiscal integrity\u201d and return power to Texans from political insiders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything starts with our public schools,\u201d Collier said in a statement. \u201cBut Dan Patrick is trying to dismantle them with vouchers and culture wars. I\u2019m running to stop him and to fully fund our public schools, respect our teachers, and make sure every child in Texas has a chance to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patrick beat Collier by 5 points the first time the two went head-to-head and handily beat him four years later, claiming a third term with a 10-point margin. <\/p>\n<p>Collier\u2019s candidacy could complicate the path for the Democratic nominee if he ends up siphoning Democratic votes. State Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.texastribune.org\/vikki-goodwin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vikki Goodwin<\/a>, D-Austin, is the only major candidate to enter the primary to oppose Patrick.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/author\/alejandro-serrano\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" alt=\"Avatar photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Alejandro_Serrano_2x3-scaled-80x80.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-80 photo\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlejandro Serrano writes about Texas politics and government, with a focus on immigration and education issues. Since joining the Tribune, he has helped investigate the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, lived&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/author\/alejandro-serrano\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Alejandro Serrano\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2137,1864,288,27644,27645,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-48056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-2026-elections","tag-dan-patrick","tag-elections","tag-lieutenant-governor","tag-mike-collier","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48056","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=48056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}