Austin Democrat Vikki Goodwin in a Dead Heat With Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in an 'Unprecedented' Lieutenant Governor's Race
Polls put the West Austin state representative even with one of Texas' highest-profile Republicans - and a pollster calls it the most competitive Texas election he has seen in more than two decades.
A West Austin Democrat who was little known statewide when the football season opened is running even with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, in what one longtime Texas pollster calls an unprecedented level of competition. Polls put state Rep. Vikki Goodwin in a dead heat with Patrick, the Republican incumbent, for an office that wields major power over the Texas Senate and the state budget, according to reporting published Monday by KUT News.
Goodwin's name recognition rose in an unexpected way. During the Texas Longhorns' first game of the season, Patrick ran an ad blitz that used AI imagery of her at a UT game, and she filed a criminal complaint over it, KUT reported. Goodwin, who defeated longtime Republican state Rep. Paul Workman in 2018, owns a real estate brokerage in West Austin and has made property taxes her signature issue. "I can really get in depth on things like property taxes and why they are the way they are, why they're going up," she said. She argues that boosting state public-school funding would blunt the rise, so districts would not have to rely as much on local taxes.
The contrast extends beyond taxes. Goodwin called Patrick's focus on restricting books in public schools a distraction - "To me, that's a distraction," she said - and has seized on backlash to the state's THC ban, which she said started with Patrick, and to data centers. In his campaign, Patrick touts his push in the Senate for property tax cuts, his effort to remove certain books from public schools and his ban of certain THC products, KUT reported. Patrick did not respond to the station's interview request, and he retains a large money edge: he has out-fundraised Goodwin 10 to 1, amassing $22 million through September.
"This is an unprecedented level of competition between the two parties in any election over the last 25 years, if not more," said Jim Henson, a pollster with the Texas Politics Project. "Certainly the most competitive election I've seen since I've been doing this for over two decades." Henson said Democratic enthusiasm, spurred in part by the open U.S. Senate race, has trickled down the ballot, while the national midterm environment is historically tough for incumbents of the president's party. Early voting in Travis County runs through Friday, October 30, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
