Dan Patrick Pushes Special Session Ban
on Campaign Cash after Filibuster Snub
Capitol Inside
August 25, 2025
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick sought on Monday to capitalize on an aborted Texas Senate filibuster when he threw his muscle behind legislation that would outlaw fundraising by state lawmakers and members of the executive branch during special sessions.
Patrick announced in a tweet that he'd enlisted GOP State Senator Paul Bettencourt of Houston to take the lead on the special session fundraising prohibition that he is confident of passing in the current summer gathering - the second so far in 2025.
Bettencourt said that Democratic State Senator Carol Alvarado vowed to support the ban on campaign contributions in a special session after having a filibuster shut down by the Republicans during the weekend before she ever got a word out in a protest against a congressional redistricting plan.
Senate Republicans voted to deny Alvarado the right to speak against the map in House Bill 4 amid assertions that she'd announced the filibuster in an email that portrayed it as fundraising event. The Republicans accused Alvarado of violating the Senate rules for ethics and decorum with the email advertising her plans to filibuster the U.S. House map before a final vote. The Houston Democrat's support for the Bettencourt-Patrick ban may seem a bit surprising as a consequence.
Bettencourt acknowledged that the Alvarado filibuster that the Republicans cancelled inspired the special session fundraising prohibition in the measure that he plans to file at Patrick's request. "After preventing a potential Fundraising Filibuster, this is the logical extension to make Special Sessions under the same rules as the Regular Session," Bettencourt said in a post on X.
But Alvarado and her fellow Senate members would have substantially less to lose from such a proposal as legislators who have big war chests because their terms span four years in most cases and competition in re-election races is rare as a result.
Texas House members - in sharp contrast - would be handcuffed significantly by the Bettencourt measure as politicians who are up for new terms every two years and barred from raising cash for their campaigns during regular sessions for five months every odd-numbered year.
The summer and fall after regular sessions are peak periods for fundraising for incumbents who could be at a major disadvantage if challengers were allowed to raise donations without limitations while special sessions were under way.
But Patrick argued that a special session contributions ban would reduce the number of times that Texas lawmakers break quorum because donors from outside the state would not be able to walkouts like the one House Democrats staged for two weeks in a move that prompted Governor Greg Abbott to call the current session.
A donations ban, Patrick contended, would cut back on the amount of time that Texas legislators are in special sessions because they would have a new incentive to get their work done as soon as possible.
"The most important result is that this bill will keep legislators on task and save taxpayer money," the Senate president said. "At times, there are important reasons to have a special session. It could be an emergency issue, or to finalize a few bills that still need to pass, but didn't quite make the regular session deadline."
Patrick said that the Texas Legislature met in nine special sessions in the past five years. The current is actually nine special sessions in four years since 2021.
"That's just too many," Patrick added.
more to come ...
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