Democrat lieutenant governor candidate appeals to Republicans. Will it work in North Texas?

A television screen with a vivid blue background hung behind Republican Glen Whitley and Democrat Mike Collier as they sat next to each other in an ornately decorated room on the top floor of the Fort Worth Club.

“Across the state. Across the Aisle,” was displayed on screen in white below Collier’s logo for lieutenant governor.

Despite their differing political parties, both men want to see Collier oust Republican incumbent Dan Patrick. Whitley made that known earlier this month and took the endorsement a step further on Wednesday when he hosted a political event for the Collier, a Republican turned Democrat who Whitley says is the right person for the job despite his party.

Collier has won over Whitley and a couple other prominent Republicans in his second run against Patrick, but he will need the support of more members of the party if he wants to win Nov. 8.

Collier calls them “crossover voters” and he knows they’re crucial in Texas, where a Democrat hasn’t been elected statewide since 1994.

“I think crossover voters are not only very important for my prospects for success, but they’re also very important for my ultimate success as an attending governor,” he said in a press conference before the political event. “The lieutenant governor really has to have a bipartisan streak.”

Tarrant County could be key to getting those votes and winning the state. Tarrant has long been considered the most firmly red of the state’s urban counties.

The county’s voters have supported Democrats near the top of the ticket in recent elections — President Joe Biden in 2020 and Beto O’Rourke during his 2018 Senate bid — but by-and-large Republicans have maintained control. Whitley himself didn’t go as far as calling the county purple in a recent WFAA “Y’all-itics” podcast interview where he announced his endorsement.

Which brings us back to the Fort Worth Club room. Back to the idea of working “across the aisle.” Back to the two men, one a Republican, one a Democrat, sitting side-by-side answering questions from reporters, about to head together to a political event at a time when parties are sharply divided.

It goes beyond politics for Whitley.

“I’m not voting for a Democrat,” he said. “I’m voting for an individual.”

It’s the judge’s pitch to members of his party. Will their appeal work?

‘A Democrat that you could live with’

Around 5 p.m. people were trickling into the Fort Worth Club to meet with Collier, Whitley and Charlie Powell, a co-host for the cocktail reception.

The event itself was closed to reporters. Whitley said he didn’t want the names of those in attendance getting out — Patrick is “very vindictive,” he said. Whitley declined to provide the guest list, but did say both Republicans and Democrats would be there and stressed that the event was focused on Collier, not a Democratic event.

“A lot of people wanted to get to know Mike. They wanted to hear. They wanted to understand that he’s not the... Democratic devil,” Whitley said. “He is an individual. He is someone who’s got an extensive business background. He understands finances. He supports public education. He supports fixing the grid, property tax relief and partnering with local governments, not blaming local government list.”

Criticisms of Patrick’s property tax policy and his interaction with local governments have been two of Whitley’s main reasons for bucking his party in favor of Collier. People are disgusted with the extremes in both parties, Whitley said.

“I think the people in the middle ... they’re looking for the issues that affect them on a day to day basis, and Mike has said that all along,” he said.

In a recent poll from The Texas Politics Project at UT-Austin, Patrick led Collier by 7 percentage points. Five percent of Republicans polled and 21% of independents said they’d support Collier. The margin was wider in a Dallas Morning News, UT-Tyler poll that put Patrick ahead by 11 points. A recent Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation poll had Patrick up by 6 points.

Wednesday’s event follows a TV ad announced earlier this week by Collier’s campaign. In it, Collier notes that he used to be a Republican and he touts his background as a businessman and work in the energy sector. Collier previously worked as an accountant and auditor at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and later became a chief financial officer at a Texas oil company.

Collier said he once identified as a Republican because everyone in his circle was a Republican. The ideas of job creation and fiscal responsibility that Republicans spoke to him about were appealing. But he’d become concerned that “property taxes were going up and school funding was going down.” He also felt there was a need for political competition.

“Talking about your Republican roots and also talking in his case about your long history as an accountant, as a conservative in terms of your professional life and your political life, is a signal to disaffected Republicans that this might be a Democrat that you could live with,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor SMU.

But statewide Democrats, including Collier, are facing tough odds. They’ll need to earn support from Republicans, independents and turn out more Democratic voters. At some point, a Democrat will win a statewide race, he said.

“I wouldn’t necessarily predict that it happens this time, but those margins are closing and Democrats are becoming more competitive,” Jillson said.

So what happens in Tarrant County come Nov. 8?

“If I were to say who’s most likely to win in Tarrant County, I would say based upon history of voting, that would be Dan Patrick, but based upon trends in voting, you’d have to say that Tarrant County could go either way,” said Jim Riddlesperger, a TCU political science professor.

How has Dan Patrick fared in North Texas previously?

The 2018 election when Patrick and Collier went head-to-head for lieutenant governor for the first time could offer a glimpse of what’s to come in November. Patrick has never lost in Tarrant, but the margins have shrunk.

In 2018 Patrick won with 51% of votes to Collier’s 46%. In Tarrant County, that margin was narrower — three percentage points — a gap far closer than the race between Abbott and his Democratic opponent Lupe Valdez (54%-44%). O’Rourke, now the Democratic nominee for governor, beat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz by less than a percentage point in the county that year.

“Tarrant County was the last major red county in the state, but it’s becoming increasingly purple and increasingly balanced between the two parties,” Jillson said, noting that the same is true in other metropolitan counties and suburbs.

Collier’s attempt to close that gap and the recent nods from across the aisle have been brushed off by Patrick’s campaign.

In addition to Whitley, Collier has been endorsed by state Sen. Kel Seliger, an Amarillo Republican who isn’t seeking reelection, and former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff. San Antonio Republican Rep. Lyle Larson, who is retiring, told the San Antonio Express-News he wouldn’t support Patrick in a Thursday report and announced he was endorsing Collier later in the day. Several Tarrant County Republican officials have disagreed with Whitley’s decision, while Democrats have welcomed the support.

In a Wednesday statement responding to an interview request, Patrick’s chief strategist Allen Blakemore called Whitley a “dinosaur, flailing about looking to Biden Democrats like Mike Collier in a search for relevance” and criticized the judge’s differing views on property taxes. He knocked Collier as a “two-time loser, trying desperately to reinvent himself” as being akin to Biden while also being a “reformed Republican” of sort.

“This wacky juxtaposition leaves him with no allies and no real base to launch a credible campaign in 2022,” Blakemore said.

Blakemore also noted that Patrick has been endorsed by the state’s 14 returning state senators and Sen. Eddie Lucio, a Brownsville Democrat.

The Tarrant County Republican Party has pushed back against Whitley’s endorsement and reminded Republicans to support GOP candidates up and down the ballot.

Republican Jonathan Stickland’s Defend Texas Liberty PAC made a similar plea in a video advertisement linking Collier and Rochelle Garza, who’s running for attorney general against Republican Incumbent Ken Paxton, to O’Rourke. Stickland is a former state representative from Bedford.

“Reject radical Democrats,” the ad says. “Keep Texas Texas.”

But Whitley didn’t appear fazed by the backlash when he spoke with reporters Wednesday. A number of state lawmakers have come to him commending his courage, the judge said. He declined to name them.

“The people who have criticized me are the very extremes that I’m talking about,” Whitley said.

As he left the Collier event, Fort Worth attorney Luis Galindo — who said he didn’t identify with a specific political party — said he didn’t go in knowing who’d he vote for.

“Did he win me over? I did think that what he had to say was on topic,” Galindo said. “He was willing to discuss the issues and went beyond just the superficial talking points that you would typically hear. And I think he’s willing to engage with us, the voters, about what’s important to us and how resolve those issues.”

Local Democrat, Republican parties weigh in

Allison Campolo, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, said it’s heartening to see moderate Republicans take a stand against their “extremists counterparts.” It’s exciting to see Whitley put effort behind his words by hosting an event, she said.

The local party is largely focused on turning out Democratic voters, but targeting moderate Republicans and independents is also important, Campolo said. Reaching out to those voters is left more to the individual candidates, she said.

“Tarrant County is absolutely the key to winning our statewide races,” Campollo said.

She’s confident a statewide Democrat will be elected, but Republican County Chair Rick Barnes isn’t concerned GOP candidates will lose statewide. He also wasn’t surprised by Whitley’s support of Collier. He didn’t think the endorsement or the endorsements from other Republicans would have sway come Election Day.

“He has not been lined up with the party for quite some time, and certainly not lined up with the lieutenant governor for a very long time,” Barnes said.

And Collier’s appeal to Republican voters? It will actually have the opposite effect, Barnes predicted.

“The good Republican is going to say, ‘If you want our vote, be a part of our party,’ ” Barnes said.”And if you want to go and play with them, then you better hurry up and try to get their vote. Don’t come back to us and try to beg for support, because you’re now leaning into a direction that’s against what the party stands for.”

That’s likely true for most Republicans, said Riddlesperger, the TCU professor.

“Most Republicans probably see it as condescending,” he said. “Most Republicans probably see it as kind of a declaration of war in a sense.”

But Collier doesn’t need to win over all Republicans or even most of them. He just needs to resonate with a fraction of them, Riddlesperger said.

As people left the Wednesday event, some carried yard signs for the lieutenant governor candidate. Tarrant County District Attorney Candidate Tiffany Burks, a Democrat, was among those who mingled with Collier. She’s worked to make her campaign about people over politics, she said, standing on a nearby sidewalk. She and others there wanted to hear that message from Collier, Burks said.

Is it a winning message in Tarrant County?

“I don’t know,” she said. “I guess we’ll see in 2022.”