Texans want border control, not 'woke' policies, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says in Abilene stop

Dan Patrick's bus parked at The Grace Museum as part of a multi-city Texas tour, targeting rural areas − which lieutenant governor said during his stopover in Abilene is the "heart of our state."

Those voters are vital in the fight against ineffective border policies, preserving the oil and gas industry and fighting woke" ideologies, he said.

Patrick faces Democrat Mike Collier in the Nov. 8 general election.

Collier is a Houston area accountant who came within 5 percentage points of winning when he previously ran against the Patrick in 2018. July polling showed Patrick with the same lead in this year's race.

The party's over?

Texas many decades ago was politically ruled by conservative Democrats, Patrick said.

But as he has spoken with rural Texans, he's found "the party left them, they didn't leave the party."

"Today, rural Texas is red, our big cities are blue," he said. "And so, I'm going out and telling the voters how important they are. It's important to be there to represent not only rural Texas, but to represent Texas."

The situation in Texas is not dissimilar to demographics seen in other areas, such as Ohio, Pittsburgh and Georgia, he said, where larger areas favor Democrats and rural areas favor Republicans.

"America is really becoming, if you look at the broad map, all red with blue on the coast and blue in some big cities," he said. "It's going to be rural America that saves America and rural Texas that saves Texas."

Patrick said Republicans and conservatives must fight for those rural values, including protection of the oil and gas industry, law and order through not defunding police departments and border security, which affects each of Texas' 254 counties.

"We believe in smaller government, lower taxes. They believe in bigger government, more taxes," he said.

Patrick said he didn't dislike Democratic candidates, who for years have been shut out of Texas state leadership.

"I just don't like what they would do to Texas," he said. "They would try to turn it into California with their woke agenda − everything from elementary schools to high schools to colleges, to the way businesses operate. Their policies would be horrendous to Texas."

Recently, Democrat Beto O'Rourke, who is running against Gov. Greg Abbott, was in Abilene.

More:O'Rourke promises win in governor's race while in Abilene

Border primary concern

Patrick said border security remain the primary issue he's hearing as he travels.

"We normally spend $400 million a year on border security in Texas of our taxpayer money," he said. "This year, it's over $4 billion because the Biden administration is not doing the job."

Patrick said around President Donald Trump's last year in office, "we were apprehending about 400,000 people on the border."

"It was pretty much under control," he said. "The first year of Bide,n it's 2 million people, and 2 million people this year. That doesn't include the 'got-aways' and the ones we don't catch."

Concerns about Democrats' energy policy "totally destroying" the oil and gas industry also weigh heavily on rural Texans, he said, as do "woke" policies, such as boys participating in girls' sports and "pornographic books in the school library."

"They're OK with these issues, and Texans are not," Patrick said of his political opponents.

Before he came to Abilene, Patrick went to Sweetwater, Anson and Albany, planning to go on to Comanche and into Erath County. It was day four of his tour, he said, with 22 cities on the travel list this week.

"Our goal is 131," he said. "We'll pass that, I believe."

As the bus prepared to pull away, rain began to fall.

"We brought rain with us, so that's the great thing," Patrick said.

Brian Bethel covers city and county government and general news for the Abilene Reporter-News. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: Texans want border control, not 'woke' policies