By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick paid a visit on Saturday evening to Coryell County, and served as the keynote speaker at the annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner, held by the Coryell County Republican Party.
His remarks included a call for voters to get out and vote in the March 3 Primary and again in November.
He said that he visited Coryell County because it is “super important,” and offered the explanation that of Texas’ 254 counties, 235 are considered rural based on population and economic numbers.
“235 of 254 (counties) are 50 percent of the vote; 19 counties are the other 50 percent of the vote,” said Patrick, adding that in the 2022 he and Governor Abbott carried 237 of the 254 counties.
“It takes all of rural Texas to keep Texas red.”
He said that his bus tour last year covered 133 cities, all of them in rural Texas, and even then, it was questioned by some why he came, that he already had their vote.
“If only half of the registered Republicans vote, then Texas will be blue, and that’s just the truth,” he said. “I know you’ll vote in November, but I need all of you this year, more than any year, to make sure you get your friends and your family out to vote,” he said. “I’m here to give you that message, because that’s how important every rural county is. And as goes rural Texas, so goes America, because if rural Texas doesn’t come out, then we lose Texas, and if we lose Texas, we lost the country.”
Patrick said the freedom of the world depends on a strong America, which depends on a strong Texas, which depends on a strong conservative Republican Party.
He said he wants to see a record voter turnout this year, and that there haven’t been this many candidates running statewide since 2014, when a number of people left offices for various reasons. He also said it’s important to support the primary winners who go on to the November 2026 elections, whoever they may be.
“If voters don’t come and support the winner, we will definitely lose, and this will be a blue state. And here’s the perfect example for those of you who don’t know this, We just lost the Senate seat in Fort Worth. It was a special election because the senator resigned, and so that left it an open seat where anyone can run. One Democrat got in it and two Republicans. No one ever thought a Democrat could win it, because Donald Trump just won (the area) by 17 points 15 months ago,” said Patrick, referring to a special election senate race won by Democrat Taylor Rehmet.
Patrick said that Rehmet won because the Republicans stayed home in a special election, and that 74,000 Republicans in Tarrant County, who normally vote in primaries, did not show up and vote, and Rehmet’s opponnent lost by 14,000 votes.
“We may be super conservative, which I think most of us in this room are, maybe somewhere in the middle, maybe some more moderate, but at the end of the day, we have to be one,” he said. “ So is important what this county and all of you do. And as John Wayne said, ‘A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”
Patrick ended his remarks by inviting those in the audience who wished, to come onstage and try on his John Wayne memorabilia, a vest worn by Wayne in the movie, “Tall in the Saddle” and a jacket worn in the movie “Rio Bravo.”
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