Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas –
“We just did a surge in September that showed we (Texas) can shut the border down. And before I became Lieutenant Governor only one pro-life bill had ever been passed out of the Texas Senate – since I’ve been Lt. Gov, we’ve passed 7 big, big pro-life bills,” said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (below right,) setting the tone for the night.
“If we lose Texas, we lose America,” said State Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston), emphasizing that if Texas’ electoral votes were added to the already Democratic states of California & 
New York, it would be “mathematically impossible to elect another Republican to the White House in our lifetime.”
“I carried the constitutional amendment that defined marriage as between one man and one woman,” said Todd Staples, Texas’ Agriculture Commissioner since 2007. “I’ll change my definition when God changes his.”
– Watch more of Dewhurst, Patrick & Staples, as 3 of the 4 Republican primary Lt. Gov. candidates participated in a Candidate Debate in Salado last week.
Dewhurst, the incumbent, opened by discussing Border Security.
“We just did a surge program in September that showed we can shut the border down,” Dewhurst said. “I’m planning on asking the Legislature for a little more help so we can shut down the border 24/7. And we can show the federal government how it’s done and send them a bill for doing it.”
“What I’ve seen in the 2011 and 2013 session is that the Democrats are using the two-thirds rule as a way to block legislation,” said Dewhurst. “In 2013 we had 17 pro-2nd Amendment bills but one bill that we had 
passed out in 2011, campus carry, the Democrats tried to put a block on it.”
Staples (right, with moderator & Talk Show Host Lynn Woolley,) Texas’ Agriculture Commissioner since 2007, reminded the crowd of what he accomplished in the six years he spent in the state Senate.
“We’ve worked too hard and too long for a conservative majority in Texas to allow liberals to run our state,” Staples said.
“We have 18 standing committees in the State Senate today. That’s not leadership if you have 18 chairmen, but only 31 members.”
“It allows bills to be hidden in areas where the public can’t find where they are,” Staples said.
Dan Patrick, a state senator and conservative talk show host from Houston, offered an insight into why he is seeking the office.
Patrick, who has served in the Legislature since 2006, said he wasn’t “looking in the rearview mirror about what we’ve done. I’m looking forward to what we must do to preserve Texas so that it will always be a conservative Republican state.”
Jerry Patterson, current General Land Office Commissioner and the 4th Lt. Gov. candidate, had another engagement south of Austin, and was unable to attend.
The event was held by the Central Texas Tea Party.
The organization’s next scheduled event is a Texas Comptroller Candidates’ Forum on Tuesday evening, February 4, 2014.
The forum will be carried live by T-SPAN.
