Gov. Greg Abbott’s last-minute announcement over the weekend to veto the THC ban that Texas lawmakers passed and to call them back to Austin for a special session to work out regulations elated some Texans and angered others.
On the very top of that latter list is no doubt Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who had made the THC ban one of his personal priorities.
The governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately, but the two Republicans have been working together in these roles for the past 10 years since they were both elected in 2014.
The two have not always been in exact lockstep, but it’s probably fair to say Patrick sees the veto as a big betrayal of his loyalty to the governor.
Benjamin Wermund, a senior political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, said Patrick expressed personal disappointment at a press conference this week.
“He said repeatedly that the governor had told him throughout the session that he would sign this ban if it made it to his desk,” Wermund said. “He said he was puzzled by his decision to veto it at the last minute. Abbott did issue his veto just before the deadline Sunday night. So Patrick seemed surprised that he did it.”
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Abbott, meanwhile, hasn’t commented on the interpersonal aspect of his veto.
Abbott “did post something on the social media site X yesterday about an Arkansas ban that he has pointed to being held up in courts as sort of his legal reasoning for why this ban was not the right way to go about this,” Wermund said. “He said Arkansas tried to do this and it was blocked in the courts.
“He and Patrick are having kind of a back-and-forth on that specific case. But the governor hasn’t really said anything to the personal level that Patrick has sort of taken it.”
Patrick has said he would not agree to Abbott’s call to regulate THC products. Wermund said as president of the Senate, Patrick has the ability to gum up the works during the special session.
“If he doesn’t want regulations to go through the Senate, which is what he’s said, then he can definitely keep that from happening,” Wermund said. “It’s somewhat unclear to me whether he might actually have some wiggle room on that. I mean, he mentioned at his press conference that he would support regulating THC essentially out of existence, very, very low levels and heavily taxing the companies and businesses that sell them, which he said would put them all out of business.”
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Abbott also has the ability to continue to call lawmakers back if he’s not satisfied with their work in this special session.
“There definitely is precedent for Abbott to call repeated special sessions,” Wermund said. “I think there were four or five after the last session. So it’s not out of the question that this could end up being pretty protracted.”
Wermund said he is also waiting to see how this rift might go on to impact Abbott and Patrick’s relationship in the longer term.
“Patrick was pretty clear, he said it repeatedly, that he thinks that he and the governor can continue to have a good working relationship,” Wermund said. “Both of them have said throughout the session that they, along with the House Speaker, [Dustin] Burrows, were working maybe better than they ever have together.
“And so they came out of the session seeming to be in a really good place. Patrick did seem to take this really personally, so we’ll kind of see where this goes and how things shake out in a special.”
