May 21, 2025      11:33 PM

Patrick pressure campaign on THC brings Texas House members to heel

Patrick often stomps through the Capitol looking angry despite winning just about every battle; now that Republicans delivered Abbott’s priority of school vouchers, the governor is largely checked out and the leadership void is again filled by the Senate’s presiding officer

“No one is standing up for us,” said a weary Texas House lawmaker late Wednesday evening after an intense pressure campaign waged by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick culminated in initial lower chamber passage of his signature legislation at the moment: A full ban on products containing THC.

In a rare clash of the liquor stores, which sell those THC drinks, and beer distributors, who don’t distribute THC while the stuff ends up on shelves “where beer ought to be,” the distributors won the day as Rep. Tom Oliverson’s amendment banning THC was approved 86 to 53.

After that, the bill moved forward with a near supermajority even though the Senate has yet to debate the school finance package that Patrick rewrote and Speaker Dustin Burrows endorsed. Patrick has made it clear to members in recent days that the school funding package along with their summer plans are at risk if the THC ban isn’t finally passed by the House. The Senate is expected to debate school finance Thursday.

Now, let’s get real. Horse-trading and dealmaking are the name of the game at the end of a regular session of the Texas Legislature. So, the threat of Patrick instructing senators to sit on the House’s school finance package until his THC ban got the green light is not unusual.

But here’s what is.

House leadership acquiescing on every big-ticket item of the session.

By Scott Braddock

Copyright May 21, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved