About this office
The Lieutenant Governor has enormous power and almost no name recognition. This office runs the Texas Senate — deciding which bills get a vote and which quietly die — and appoints every Senate committee chair, the gatekeepers who decide what reaches the floor at all.
Candidates
Vikki GoodwinGoodwin sold houses in Austin for decades, then at 51 knocked on her first political door and beat a sitting Republican for a seat his party had held for years. Now she's running against Dan Patrick — the man who's run the Texas Senate for a decade — and most Texans still don't know her name. That's the whole race.
About Vikki
She and her husband built a real-estate firm together before she ran in 2018. In the House she co-wrote the 2019 school-finance overhaul and the bill that raised retired teachers' pensions, passed a child-drowning-prevention law and a domestic-violence protection law named for the women they're meant to save, and filed universal background checks for gun buyers. She sits on Appropriations — the committee that writes the budget — rare for a Democrat. Patrick has $30 million; the latest poll has him at 49 to her 44, with more than half of voters saying they don't know enough about her yet.
Anthony Cristo
A high school debate teacher and Navy veteran who enlisted at 36 to become a hospital corpsman after years working in cancer research outreach.
About Anthony
Cristo, from the San Antonio area, graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Incarnate Word in 2002 and worked as a Cancer Information Specialist for the American Cancer Society before becoming a high school English and debate teacher in Judson ISD. He later enlisted in the Navy at 36 and served as a hospital corpsman. He previously ran for Congress in Texas' 15th District (2018) and 34th District (2020), and is now the Libertarian nominee for lieutenant governor.
Dan PatrickHis real last name is Goeb. He's from Baltimore. He put Rush Limbaugh on the radio — and then took over Texas.
About Dan
Patrick built a conservative talk radio empire in Houston before entering politics, becoming one of the first programmers in the country to air Rush Limbaugh in 1988. He survived bankruptcy, a leaked hospitalization record from 1982, and his own admission of depression to become the architect of Texas's abortion ban, school voucher push, and voting restrictions.
Kevin McCormickA former teacher running on a platform of expanding public transit and building rural farm cooperatives.
About Kevin
McCormick is a former teacher and the Green Party nominee for lieutenant governor. His campaign focuses on expanding bus service in Texas cities, building family-farm greenhouse cooperatives in rural areas, and election reforms including ranked-choice voting. His campaign site notes he expects little media coverage and is relying on word-of-mouth to reach voters.