Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick
Dan Patrick has led a fascinating life journey filled with colorful stories and larger-than-life personalities. His path took him from a working-class upbringing in Baltimore to becoming one of the most powerful political figures in Texas as lieutenant governor.
Patrick grew up in one of those narrow 12-foot wide brick rowhouses built at the turn of the last century, the kind seen in the movie Rocky. As Patrick describes, “416 South Oldhams Street has a good ring to it.”
His parents embodied the blue-collar grit and sacrifice of that generation. Like many of the WWII era, Patrick’s father dropped out of high school to join the Marines and fight in the South Pacific. After the war, he went to work in a Baltimore steel mill, eventually becoming a truck driver and rising to head the transportation department for the Baltimore Sun paper. Patrick’s mother dropped out of high school during her senior year to work at the Martin Marietta airplane factory. After the war she spent decades working as a bookkeeper.
Neither of Patrick’s parents finished high school, but he credits them as his best role models, describing his father as “firm but fair.” As Patrick recounts, many people of that generation didn’t need much formal education to be great Americans. They built the country through their perseverance, surviving the Depression and WWII. Their street smarts and work ethic allowed them to thrive without the educational opportunities people have today.
As a teenager, Patrick got his first enticing glimpse of the media world after a class trip to a local radio station. He was instantly captivated by broadcasting. While in high school and college Patrick worked as a disc jockey, rubbing shoulders with the likes of country legends Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams Jr. He did a show with the Temptations for his senior prom, securing the band at the last minute in a bold election promise.
After college, Patrick worked his way up in the world of TV news, beginning at a small station in Pennsylvania. This first job launched his on-air career, with stops in Washington DC. In a twist of fate, Patrick started the same day as a young Al Roker at an NBC affiliate in 1978. After a year in DC, Patrick relocated to Houston as a sports anchor. He quickly became known for his humor and unconventional stunts, like painting the entire news set blue and burying baseball memorabilia in a coffin when a strike halted the season. As Patrick describes, “We had a lot of fun, and we did a lot of crazy things.”
However, after years in TV Patrick felt he was missing out on precious family time. He left the business on a whim, starting a small AM radio station outside Houston. The station was struggling badly until Patrick had the idea to air Rush Limbaugh’s little-known talk show—one of the first broadcasters to syndicate Limbaugh’s soon-to-be juggernaut program. Almost overnight Limbaugh became a star, and Patrick’s station was suddenly a huge ratings success.
Emboldened, Patrick went on to purchase other radio stations. He eventually launched his own conservative talk show, railing against big government and liberal policies for years. His voice was a near-constant fixture on Texas radio, as Patrick honed his brand of conversation for devoted audiences across the state.
In 2014 Patrick pivoted to politics, running for lieutenant governor leveraging his name ID and conservative bona fides. He won handily, crediting mentors like Limbaugh for his rise from inner-city Baltimore to one of the most influential offices in Texas.
Now in his second term, Dan Patrick has led a remarkable life journey filled with colorful stories at every turn, from hawking papers outside a Baltimore church to swimming in a podiatrist’s giant foot-shaped pool to negotiate a radio station purchase. It’s exactly the kind of only-in-America biography Patrick relishes.
