Dan Patrick

The Florida law prohibits teachers from teaching sexual orientation or gender identity to kids below the fourth grade.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s marching orders come after he threatened to revoke tenure for some professors at public universities who teach about critical race theory and its history.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s proposal to end tenure at all public universities received swift criticism from faculty and higher education experts who said it would negatively impact the reputation of Texas’ colleges and universities.

Patrick said a recent resolution adopted by faculty at UT Austin about its academic freedom is another signal the “woke left” has gone too far.

Patrick’s mass mailing urging voters to apply for mail-in ballots included return envelopes addressed to the Texas secretary of state’s office. The applications are supposed to be sent to local offices, but Patrick’s campaign says voters don’t trust election officials in Democratic counties.

In a tweet, Patrick said he supported Abbott calling lawmakers back to Austin to increase the penalty for illegal voting and approve a “forensic audit bill.”

Texas lawmakers are back in Austin Thursday after wrapping up the 87th regular legislative session just over a month ago. Gov. Greg Abbott called a special session to work on what he considers unfinished business.

Patrick made the call on Twitter, hours after bills related to social media content policies, lobbying by cities and mandating which school sports teams that transgender athletes can play on missed a deadline.

Speaking at the state Capitol, Patrick criticized Harris County for what he said was overstepping its authority during the last election. "I have news for Harris County: You're not the capital of Texas,” he said.

Gov. Abbott has previously directed much of the blame for the storm's power outages on the state's electrical-grid operator.