Texas Lt. Gov. Says He Won’t Let Texas Turn Blue: ‘If We Fall, America Falls’

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is happening for a second time this year because reasons, and it kicked off Friday in Dallas. During one of the opening speeches, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick warned that the state is “the last man standing” and said that the prospect of Texas turning blue would be a disaster for the country:

In Texas, we are the last man standing. There are a lot of conservative and red states around the country, but if we fall, America falls. The electoral votes of New York, California, and New York [sic] combined together means we could never elect a conservative Republican to the White House ever again.

I can tell you that as the lieutenant governor of this great state that I’m blessed and honored to serve, we’re not ever going to let that happen.

Patrick’s comments come one day after the Republican-controlled Texas state legislature revealed its plans to pass a bill designed to make voting in the state more difficult. According to The New York Times, the legislation would:

…ban 24-hour voting and drive-through voting; prohibit election officials from proactively sending out absentee ballot applications to voters who have not requested them; add new voter identification requirements for voting by mail; limit third-party ballot collection; increase the criminal penalties for election workers who run afoul of regulations; limit what assistance can be provided to voters; and greatly expand the authority and autonomy of partisan poll watchers.

While Texas gained two congressional seats and therefore two electoral votes after the 2020 census, the political composition of the state as a whole has been changing. Increasingly, younger and more educated out-of-staters are being drawn to Texas by a booming startup scene and low taxes.

For most of the past 40 years, Texas has overwhelmingly voted for Republican presidential nominees. However, in 2020 Donald Trump carried the state by just under six percentage points.

Watch above via Right Side Broadcasting Network.