By 6 p.m. on a recent Monday, Vikki Goodwin had sat through a five-hour Texas House insurance committee hearing, worked the phones to thank campaign donors for their latest checks, sat for an interview with a cannabis podcast where she bashed Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s push to ban THC products, and was en route to a mixer for a fellow Democrat running for Congress.
Such is half a day in the life of Texas’ Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, who is taking on one of the state’s top GOP kingmakers on a shoestring campaign budget. But despite his comparatively massive war chest and the name recognition from nearly 12 years in statewide office, Patrick is running like he feels the heat more than ever before. Confronting a scrappy opponent and a rough midterm climate for the GOP, the state’s second-in-command has been forced to go after Goodwin by name in speeches and attack ads — a distinction rarely, if ever, afforded to his past Democratic foes — while warning Republican voters and peers the threat is real.
