Two Democratic candidates are competing in a May runoff to determine who will challenge incumbent Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick after neither Democrat received more than 50% of the vote in the March primary election.
The lieutenant governor presides over the state senate, decides which committees bills go to and is the head of the Texas Legislative Budget Board, said Gary Keith, a former government senior lecturer at UT. The board is in charge of the Texas budget, which includes funding for higher education institutions, he said.
“(The lieutenant governor) has more powers than any lieutenant governor in the United States, and arguably has more power than the governor,” Keith said.
Patrick, the current lieutenant governor, is running for reelection and received 85.6% of votes in the March primary. Patrick has served as lieutenant governor since 2015 and did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Under Patrick’s tenure, the state senate passed Texas Senate Bill 37, which reduced faculty council insight into curriculum and gave universities more control in appointing faculty council members. The body also passed Texas Senate Bill 17, which prohibited public universities from having diversity, equity and inclusion offices and hiring practices.
“This Legislative Session we have already passed the most conservative agenda in Texas history,” Patrick said in a news release announcing his reelection campaign.
Patrick released his interim legislative charges, which are topics the lieutenant governor asks Texas senators to study in between legislative sessions. Regarding higher education, he advises the chamber to monitor the implementation of SB 37 and review the Texas University Fund, which provides public state institutions research grants. The charges also include monitoring the way community colleges are funded.
State Rep. Vikki Goodwin seeks to challenge Patrick in November. Goodwin, D-Austin, received 48% of the votes in the March primary and currently represents parts of southwest Austin.
On higher education, Goodwin said she wants to restore faculty senates, which were dissolved after Texas SB 37 passed, and reduce barriers to students inviting guest speakers on campus following the passing of the Campus Protection Act.
“Some of the laws that we have recently passed have had a chilling effect on our professors, worrying about if they say the wrong thing in their class,” Goodwin said. “We should have conversations that cause us to think about challenging topics.”
Goodwin said her legislative priorities are: funding for public education, ensuring Texans have access to healthcare, addressing affordability and increasing clean water and energy access.
Goodwin faces Marcos Vélez who received 31.5% in the March primary. Vélez is the assistant director at the United Steelworkers’ District 13 office, which represents Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma for the largest industrial labor union in North America.
Regarding higher education, Vélez said hex would prioritize repealing legislation like Texas SB 17, which passed in 2023, and codifying protections for educators’ freedom of expression. He said he would also prioritize bringing back diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“We do not do better in society by eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion,” Vélez said. “(Diversity, equity and inclusion is) the bare minimum that we can do to ensure representation in spaces where marginalized voices have been boxed out.”
Vélez said his legislative priorities include raising the minimum wage, funding higher education and public education and expanding access to healthcare and housing.
