candidates in the 2022 Republican primaries for the Texas Senate, something described as "unusual" for a lieutenant governor. He reportedly had an influential role in former president Donald Trump's endorsements in Texas elections. Political positions Abortion Patrick opposes abortion and supported Texas' "Mandatory Ultrasound Bill", a bill signed into law in May 2011 by Governor Perry, which requires women seeking abortion to have a sonogram of the fetus taken at least twenty-four hours before the abortion is performed. Patrick opposes abortion in cases of incest and rape. In January 2014, when he was asked about exceptions to outlawing abortion, Patrick said, "The only exception would be if the life of the mother was truly in danger…but that is rare." Education Patrick supports increasing the number of charter schools in the state. In February 2011, Patrick, who at the time was vice chairman of the Texas senate's Committee on Education, spoke in favor of cutting an unspecified number of non-teaching positions from the state's public school districts, citing positions such as "math department supervisors" or "curriculum experts". At the time, Patrick cited a statistic later determined to be misleading by PolitiFact that Texas's 1,200+ public school districts, considered as a group, are the fifth-largest employer in the world. Patrick has supported placing creationism within the public school curriculum in Texas, despite court rulings that such a policy would violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 2019, Patrick pushed to increase Texas teachers' paychecks by $5,000. In 2021, Patrick supported legislation to prevent public schools from requiring that students read writings by prominent civil rights figures, such as Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr., when covering women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement in social studies classes. In 2022, Patrick pledged to end tenure for new hires at Texas public universities. He also said that he intended to revoke tenure for faculty who teach critical race theory. Gun laws Patrick generally supports gun rights. In 2019, Patrick called for requiring background checks for gun sales between two strangers. Patrick later backed away from this position, instead throwing his support behind legislation to expand gun rights, including constitutional carry. Illegal immigration Patrick opposes illegal immigration. As a talk radio host, he reserved some of his "most hard-edged oratory for illegal immigrants." Patrick expressed support for Arizona's SB 1070 immigration enforcement law, and supports passing a similar