The talk is all John Cornyn-Ken Paxton, but the real winner in Austin is Dan Patrick | Opinion
The most powerful man or woman in the Texas Capitol says this Legislature is “boring,” and that’s bad news.
The most powerful man or woman in the Capitol is not Gov. Greg Abbott. It’s Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
If he’s bored, that just means he’s getting his way.
So far, he’s getting his way on almost everything. That includes an outright ban on THC and hemp-based consumables. The Texas House held almost nothing back for last-minute, feeble leverage, and the session ends June 2.
Generally, there’s been way more chatter in Austin about the 2026 election and the potential Sen. John Cornyn-Ken Paxton cage match than gossip about the Legislature.
Dan Patrick said ‘jump,’ and the House asked ‘how high?’
Patrick and the Senate simply handed the House a list of honey-dos, including a complete ban on THC products sold in thousands of shops and up to a 1-year sentence for possession.
The House dawdled, but crammed it all in at the end, like a term paper assignment.
“This legislative session had all the charisma of a common brick,” government instructor Darrell Castillo of Weatherford College, a former White House staffer under President Ronald Reagan, wrote by email.
The Cornyn-Paxton buzz “continues to take more air out of the room,” he wrote.
That also would create a vacancy for attorney general, along with the comptroller job and a potential open seat on the Railroad Commission overseeing oil and gas.
Texas House speaker switch lowered the volume
SMU political scientist Matthew Wilson, an observer of religious conservatives, said the Legislature is boring because Republicans control both Austin and Washington now and have already dealt with border enforcement, abortion and race and gender issues.
Another reason for the lack of drama: Dade Phelan’s departure as speaker.
As House speaker, he often challenged Patrick. New Houston Speaker Dustin Burrows has gone out of his way to work with Patrick, originally a harsh critic, and is “much less of a thorn in conservatives’ side,” Wilson wrote by email.
The Legislature’s signature accomplishment is a voucher bill, paired with a tentative deal for $8.5 million in new money for schools, almost half of it specifically for teacher pay raises.
Democrats were still on watch for any hurried, last-minute amendments. But generally, they only have the numbers to defeat a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds vote.
House Republicans changed their minds on THC
“The Republicans more or less held it together — they got most of their top items across the finish line,” University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus wrote.
That included a late-night vote May 21 to ban THC, the intoxicating compound in marijuana. The demand was imposed by Patrick even though the House originally wanted to license and regulate products like the state does for alcohol.
Democrats mostly talk about 2026, too. They have a slight glimmer of hope with the usual pushback against what amounts to a first-term Republican in the White House.
In Texas, they’re counting on winning votes due to disappointing tax relief, a backlash against vouchers and resentment over THC and social media bans. Republicans didn’t give them much else.
“That’s a possible path but still a heavy lift,” Rottinghaus wrote.
Yes, it was a boring session.
That was Dan’s plan.
This story was originally published May 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
