Lieutenant Governor — Texas

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Election: November 3, 2026. Research checked: October 8, 2026.

Four candidates have printed ballot lines. Two additional candidates are certified write-ins. All six are included here, with the same evidence standards and explicit research gaps.

WHAT THIS OFFICE CAN ACTUALLY DO

Texas elects the lieutenant governor separately from the governor. The office presides over the Senate, appoints committee members and chairs, and refers bills to committees. These powers strongly shape which proposals receive hearings and move forward. Article IV, Section 16 provides a casting vote when the Senate is tied, participation when it sits as a committee of the whole, and succession or acting-governor responsibilities under specified circumstances.

A lieutenant governor cannot alone enact a tax cut, change school funding or create a health program. Those proposals require the legislative process and appropriate funding; Senate procedural rules and other institutions also matter. Evaluate promises by the committee action, bill, budget provision and measurable outcome the candidate would pursue.

Official legislative directory: office powers · Texas Constitution, Article IV, Section 16

ALL CERTIFIED CHOICES

The Secretary of State's August 28 certifications are the eligibility sources. A website, primary filing or fundraising record alone does not establish general-election eligibility. The write-in list does not assign party labels. Use the certified name and your county's write-in instructions.

Printed candidates: state certification · Certified write-ins: state certification · Wheeler County's November 3 write-in list

DAN PATRICK

Republican — printed ballot; incumbent. The Senate biography records eight years of prior Senate service and election as lieutenant governor in 2014, 2018 and 2022. His campaign emphasizes property and business tax relief, dispatchable electricity generation, border enforcement, policing, school choice and conservative social policy. Its legislative-priority material offers a starting point for checking specific bills. Claims about savings, effectiveness and outcomes require separate examination of enacted law, budgets and results.

Campaign and priorities · Official Senate biography

Questions: Which tax reductions will you pursue next session, and what recurring revenue will support schools afterward? Which grid-reliability metric will improve by a specified date? What hearing and disclosure rules would give opponents and the public a fair opportunity to test your proposals?

VIKKI GOODWIN

Democratic — printed ballot. Goodwin's campaign presents public-school funding, water, data-center policy, housing affordability and healthcare as priorities. She opposes school vouchers. Her Texas Cares proposal describes a state-administered coverage approach involving Medicaid expansion, a Basic Health Program and a public option. These are campaign proposals; enactment, federal participation, actuarial costs and sustainable funding are not established by publication of the plan.

Campaign and issue pages · Texas Cares proposal

Questions: What independent cost estimate and federal approvals does Texas Cares require? Which school-funding bill, recurring revenue and teacher-retention target would you pursue? How would water and data-center safeguards balance local participation, infrastructure needs and enforceable standards?

ANTHONY CRISTO

Libertarian — printed ballot. Cristo describes himself as a high-school English and debate teacher and military veteran. His published platform combines spending and tax reductions with adequate school funding, free markets, support for immigrants who work and contribute, and marijuana legalization. His proposal to fund schools without higher taxes needs a detailed budget and explanation of the services affected by cuts; the position is not itself a verified fiscal result.

Campaign, biography and platform ›

Questions: Which appropriations would you reduce and by how much? How would school funding stay adequate after those reductions? What cannabis bill, enforcement transition and public-health safeguards would you advance? Which immigration-related changes fall within state rather than federal authority?

Photo source: Texas party candidate list ›

KEVIN MCCORMICK

Green — printed ballot. McCormick's campaign names three legislative priorities: expanded city bus fleets; rural cooperatives, greenhouse food production and hemp infrastructure; and election reforms including ranked-choice voting, a single statewide primary and limits on gerrymandering. He also proposes property appraisal based on rent or lease value, water conservation and renewable energy. These proposals require legislation and, where relevant, constitutional and fiscal analysis.

Campaign and detailed priorities ›

Questions: What bus and rural-investment funding would you request, with what ridership and farm-income targets? Which legal changes would your election reforms require? How would the appraisal proposal affect homeowners, renters, public-school revenue and appeals?

ARTURO ESPINOSA

Certified write-in. The state and Wheeler County lists verify this candidacy. A sufficiently attributable current lieutenant-governor website, platform and portrait have not been verified. Search results include an earlier governor campaign; that material is not treated as a current lieutenant-governor plan. Lack of verified material is a research gap, not a zero score or a finding that the candidate made no effort.

Official certification ›

Questions: Where can voters read your current platform? Which three Senate actions would you prioritize, under what authority, with what costs and deadlines? What records establish your relevant experience?

STEPHEN SAMUELSON

Certified write-in. Samuelson's current campaign proposes a revenue and property-tax review, a state-verified community reporting system called Texas Voice, and legislative oversight of constitutional rights. It identifies committee work, fiscal review and public findings as delivery mechanisms. The proposed reporting system would need funding, privacy rules and local-control safeguards. His account of a First Amendment lawsuit is a litigant's account, not an adjudicated finding adopted by this report.

Current lieutenant-governor campaign and commitments ›

Questions: When would you publish the revenue review, and what specific burden reduction would it target? How would Texas Voice protect identity data, avoid retaliation and distinguish verified reports from allegations? Which constitutional-oversight hearings would you seek, using what neutral evidence standard?

Photo status: campaign graphics are available, but a real candidate portrait has not yet been verified. A graphic is not substituted for a portrait.

COMMON RECORD AND FINANCE CHECKS STILL TO DO

The next evidence layer is the same for every candidate: relevant public service and employment records; specific bills and votes where applicable; performance outcomes; conflicts and accountability; and dated finance reports. The Texas Ethics Commission campaign-finance system is the starting point for state-office reports. Compare identical reporting windows, amendments, contributions, spending, loans and cash on hand separately. Missing filings mean unknown, not zero.

For this project, a low-funded campaign will mean one with less than $100,000 in reported contributions during the same identified comparison period. This is a disclosed editorial grouping, not a legal status or a qualification threshold. No candidate is classified under it until comparable reports have been retrieved. All eligible candidates remain included regardless of funds.

PROVISIONAL REPORT CARD

All six candidates remain unscored in this first pass. The California framework examines relevant experience, accountability, education, affordability, economic opportunity, civil rights and religious freedom for everyone, environment, practical office powers, and measurable commitments. Its commitment category awards up to two points each for action, delivery mechanism, office authority, target and deadline. A score must disclose the assessed document and evidence; a total out of 90 needs adequate comparable research across all nine categories.

This report establishes the candidate map and campaign proposals, not complete comparative records. More detailed website material is useful evidence of a proposal, not proof of delivery. No forecast or endorsement is inferred from these summaries.

DATED CAMPAIGN-FINANCE SNAPSHOT

Checked October 8, 2026; July semiannual reports due July 15, covering periods ending June 30. These are reported figures from the Texas Ethics Commission July totals, cross-checkable through the official totals index and July balance list. They are an identified historical snapshot, not current October balances. Newer pre-election filings, amendments, itemized donors and other committees remain to be reviewed.

The June 30 contribution-maintenance balances and outstanding loans share a measurement date. Contribution and spending totals cover the different start dates shown: compare flows only between rows with identical periods. Do not treat a shorter-period total as a full first-half-year total or rank campaigns across unequal windows. Contributions can include noncash support; balances are not net wealth and loans are not donations. The reported total lines are used without adding the small-item subtotal a second time.

Abbott and Patrick are represented by their named campaign committees, not their separate personal officeholder filings. This is not an aggregate of every affiliated committee or outside spender.

Low-funded definition: less than $100,000 in reported contributions for January 1–June 30, 2026. The complete-period rows meeting that disclosed threshold here are Anthony Cristo; Kevin McCormick. Rows with later starts remain unclassified until preceding reports are reconciled; unmatched filings mean unknown, not zero. A zero shown above is an explicit reported line for that period, not a finding that the campaign did nothing or never raised funds. Funding does not determine inclusion, seriousness, eligibility or assessment score.

THREE VOICES — AN OPEN ASSESSMENT

AI research / provisional view: the sourced findings and questions above, with gaps disclosed. Voter response: Omar and other voters can provide their own assessments. Candidate response / self-assessment: every candidate can supply corrections, source documents and an office-specific self-assessment. No candidate response to this report, voter tally, Omar score or Omar endorsement has been received or invented.

Common request to all six: Identify three priorities, the office power and delivery mechanism for each, its cost and recurring funding, a target, a deadline and the public record voters can use to check performance.

PHOTO SOURCES

Dan Patrick: Texas Senate · Vikki Goodwin: campaign homepage photograph · Kevin McCormick: campaign photograph

Anthony Cristo: Texas party photograph ›

Images are sourced from the identified government, campaign or party pages. Missing portraits remain disclosed.