Democrats Get Crumbs in Latest Round
of Patrick Texas Senate Committee Picks
Capitol Inside
March 23, 2026
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick gave Texas Senate Democrats an all-time cold shoulder on Monday when he released a new set of committee lineups and created three select panels that each have multiple Republicans but only one member of the chamber's minority party on their rosters.
While Patrick transformed standing Senate panels that focus on border security and veterans affairs into select committees in the latest rosters reshuffling, he also established a new Select Committee on Religious Liberty for the apparent sake of replicating his work on a national commission that President Donald Trump hatched for him to lead.
Patrick's new religious liberty panel contains a half-dozen Republicans and a lone Democrat in Senator Cesar Blanco of El Paso.
The chamber president tapped GOP Senator Phil King of Weatherford to chair the new religious panel while doing double-duty as the leader of the new Select Senate Committee on Homeland and Border Security as well.
Republican State Senators Angela Paxton of McKinney and Tan Parker of Flower Mound scored appointments from Patrick to the chairs for the Economic Development Committee and Transportation Committee respectively. Patrick selected GOP State Senator Paul Bettencourt of Houston to chair the Higher Education Committee in addition to his duties as the leader of the Local Government Committee.
Patrick wasn't as generous with the Democrats who emerged from the new round of committee assignments with less clout than ever in the Legislature's upper chamber where he's made stripping power from them a major priority since taking over as presiding officer in 2015. After vowing to clear the slate of Democratic committee chairs in the Senate, Patrick needed an entire decade to accomplish the mission before declaring it as a success with the appointments he dished out for the regular session last year. But he demonstrated that he wasn't done with the latest shift of power to the ruling Republicans at the Democrats' expense.
Patrick named two Democrats to the Senate Education Committee that has six Republicans. That's a dramatic improvement over the Democrats' representation on the powerful State Affairs Committee, which includes State Senator Judith Zaffirini of Laredo as the only Democrat on the new roster. Four Democrats were among the 14 Senate member who won coveted seats on the Finance Committee that oversees the state's two-year budget.
The Senate's Higher Education Committee has two Democrats among its seven members. Two Democrats were named to the Criminal Justice Committee along with five Republicans.
Two of the three select Senate committees that Patrick announced today have Republicans as the chairs and vice-chairs. Democratic State Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen was named as the vice-chairman of the Homeland and Border Security Committee.
Patrick's 14 standing committees are all led by Republicans in line with the new tradition he's begun. Three have Democratic vice-chairs with veteran State Senator Royce West of Dallas, Zaffirini and Hinojosa, who drew the second spots on the Transportation Committee, the Natural Resources Committee and the Finance Committee respectively.
Patrick declined to appoint the chamber's newest member - Democratic State Senator Taylor Rehmet of Fort Worth - to any of the Senate's standing or select committees. Rehmet won a special runoff election for the Senate District 9 seat in January when he crushed the Republican who Patrick recruited for the race and bankrolled. Patrick's spurning of Rehmet sparked a petition drive designed to pressure the Senate leader into appointing the new member to one or more committees that will be dealing with issues that he plans to have the chamber tackle in 2027.
"After months of SD9 having no voice, the Lt. Gov just refused to assign me to any legislative committee," Rehmet said in a post on X. "This type of partisan maneuvering stands in the way of delivering results for ALL Texans."
But the lieutenant governor's GOP allies did better than ever with 10 standing committee chairs landing appointments as vice-chairs as well as the beneficiaries of the record snubbing of Democrats.
Patrick will face the winner of a Democratic runoff between State Rep. Vikki Goodwin and labor organizer Marcos Vélez in his bid for a new term as the Senate president.
more to come ...
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