Voters approach a polling location in Austin, on October 13, 2020. Sergio Flores/Getty Experts often cite a feeling of powerlessness as a common source of anger. And Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was visibly angry at a news conference on April 6. He had lost control of the messaging on his “election integrity” bill days after it passed the Senate. A few corporate leaders in the state had come out against the legislation, widely viewed as aimed at making it more difficult for minorities to vote. They perhaps reminded Patrick of the hundreds of companies that had rallied against his 2017 anti-transgender bathroom bill and ultimately helped kill its passage in the House. With the pecan-wood blinds closed behind him so he would not be backlit for the television cameras lining his Capitol reception room, Patrick unleashed vitriol against the corporations and the news media that were describing his election overhaul legislation, Senate Bill 7, as voter suppression.