Story, photos by Steve Nash / Special Contributor to BrownwoodNews.com

Speaking at the Inaugural Reagan Day Luncheon Thursday in Brownwood, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick delivered a get-out-the-vote speech and said Democrats can flip Texas blue if rural voters stay home from the polls.

Patrick was the keynote speaker at the event, which was hosted by the Brown County Republican Party at the Howard Payne University Mabee Center’s Bullion Suites.

State Sen. Phil King and Rep. David Spiller attended the luncheon, which drew 125 people.

Patrick, 75, is seeking a fourth term as lieutenant governor. Early voting in the March 3 Republican Party primary election begins Feb. 17.

Patrick began with humor and light-hearted anecdotes before using his appreciation of rural Texas to segue to a more serious message.

“If every place in America was like rural Texas, there would be no anarchists in the streets,” Patrick said.  “We’re not going to have schools and other entities that are saying it’s OK for a boy to play girls sports. We’re not going to have anyone not kneeling for prayer or putting their hand on their heart when we do the Star Spangled Banner.

“We’re in a fight for this country. Make no mistake about it. You have to understand, the people out on the streets are not good Americans trying to make America better. These are anarchists, paid by Marxists-Leninists who want to take over your country. And we cannot sit back and let them do that.”

Patrick said the Republicans lost a senate seat in Tarrant County about three weeks ago in a special runoff election. He was referring to Republican Leigh Wambsganss’ loss to Democrat Taylor Rehment.

“We lost a seat that Trump won by 17 points and we lost it by 14,000 votes, Patrick said, adding that 74,000 people “just didn’t vote” and stayed home.

“We have a lot of big races,” Patrick said. “Three people running for U.S. senate. Four people running for AG. Three running for comptroller. Seven out of 10 people are going to lose (in the primary election). If those seven people don’t help the winner (in runoff elections), or if their voters don’t come out, we will lose this state in November.”

“We have to get out and vote. We cannot stay home if our man or woman didn’t win. We’ve got to turn out, and we’ve got to be sure that we all come together. We’ve never had this many people on a primary ballot.”

Out of 254 Texas counties, 19 are blue, Patrick said. “They are 50 percent of the vote. So 19 counties are 50 percent and 235 rural counties are 50 percent.”

Patrick said when he visited rural counties on a bus tour four years ago, voters asked him why he was campaigning there and assured him they’d be voting for Republicans.

“I said ‘yes, but if only half of you vote, we’ll lose,'” Patrick said. “And a lot of people get this mindset of, well, we’re a red county. But only 50 percent of Republicans turn out, we lose. Ted Cruz won by 2 percent over Beto O’Rourke. So your vote matters. You’re not going to want to wake up one morning and have a Democrat in the governor’s mansion.

“We can’t sit home and say ‘I know we’re going to win.’ It’s not a guarantee this time. And because we lost that seat in Fort Worth, the Democrats are now going all over the country and raising money and saying ‘see, we can flip Texas blue.'”

Patrick concluded by saying, “where are we? We’re in a fight against darkness. We’re in a fight for religious liberty and we’re in a fight with Democrats, and we have to keep Texas red. If Texas falls, we never elect a Republican to the White House ever again because of the electoral votes of New York, California and Texas. How important are you? You are as important as any voter in the state of Texas. Your vote counts just as much when we add them all up and that’s how we win. Without you, we don’t. “

After Patrick finished speaking, Brown County Republican Party Chairman Robert Porter said rural Texas is “the heartbeat and the blood of Texas conservatism and American conservatism.”

Porter said the Inaugural Reagan Day Luncheon had been “over the top, what I expected it to be. We had great support from Sen. Phil King’s office and his chief of staff, and also Rep. David Spiller and his chief of staff.  They all worked together, along with the staff of Howard Payne University.

“The whole purpose was to excite the voter base before the election. We wanted to energize the voter base. We are as red as red can be. We have to turn out the vote and get them to the polls. We turned out 60 percent of the vote for Donald Trump. In an off year, a non-presidential year, it’s harder to get people out. If we want to keep Texas red, we have to turn out that same 60 percent.”