Confirmed: Megachurch Pastor Hagee endorsed Patrick (Updated)

Susan Rouse, a volunteer with the Patterson campaign, said she phoned Hagee Ministries and asked if it was true that Pastor Hagee had endorsed Dan Patrick. When the secretary asked why she wanted to know, she replied that she was “surprised that Pastor Hagee would endorse DP due to his “negative factual history.”  She said the secretary replied that “Pastor Hagee might ‘support’ someone as a ‘private citizen’ but that he does not ‘endorse’ anyone and ‘has not endorsed Dan Patrick or anyone else.'”

However, a spokesman for Hagee Ministries said that the secretary was not aware of Hagee’s endorsement, and simply knew the church had a policy that it did not make endorsements as an institution. “As a matter of policy, Cornerstone Church does not endorse individuals as an organization, but from time to time, Pastor Hagee does,” the spokesman said.
ORIGINAL POST:

Verbal warfare escalated earlier this week in the Republican Primary race for lieutenant governor when Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson accused Houston Sen. Dan john-hagee-apPatrick of misleading voters by claiming that John Hagee, pastor of the 22,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, had endorsed Patrick’s candidacy. Patterson claims he was told that Hagee does not make political endorsements.

Patterson told the Austin American Statesman that Hagee Ministries had assured him via email that Hagee did not formally endorse candidates.

Patrick responded that Hagee had endorsed him at a fundraiser that Hagee held for Patrick’s candidacy. Campaign finance reports confirm that Hagee donated $1,000 to Patrick’s campaign. We reached out yesterday to Hagee’s office to settle the dispute about a formal “endorsement.”

Today, a Hagee spokesman responded with a formal statement: “Pastor Hagee held a fundraiser for Dan Patrick at which Hagee endorsed Patrick’s bid for lieutenant governor.”

Patrick said in a press release earlier today that Patterson has removed his claim of fraud from Facebook. “Sunday night on Facebook, Jerry Patterson said he had an email from Pastor John Hagee saying he had not endorsed Dan Patrick.  That post has since, mysteriously, disappeared.  Patterson continued the attack that I didn’t have the endorsement of Pastor Hagee the next day.  Yesterday in the Austin American Statesman, Patterson took his absurd attack to a new level calling me a pathological liar and suggesting I made up the Pastor’s endorsement.”

We will reach out again to Hagee Ministries to clear up why Patterson received an email in conflict with today’s statement. Patrick and Patterson are in a four-way race with Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples and incumbent David Dewhurst for the Republican nomination. Democratic Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio is also running.

 

Patricia Kilday Hart