AUSTIN — Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick battled longtime supporter and conservative firebrand Michael Quinn Sullivan in a Twitter war Tuesday morning with the statewide officeholder telling the activist "You are destroying our party."

Sullivan, who leads the influential conservative group, Empower Texans, and has been in an ongoing feud with Republican Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, initiated the fracas with a breakfast-time tweet that lumped Patrick together with Democrat Beto O'Rourke on the gun issue.

"Whether it is @BetoORourke wanting to outright seize your firearms, or @DanPatrick trying to manage what you do with them, it is sadly evident too many politicians are all too willing to betray our Constitution in the name of their own political power," Sullivan tweeted.

The O'Rourke mention was an apparent response to the presidential candidate's "Hell, yes, we're going to take away your AR-15" promise at least week's debate in Houston. The broadside aimed at Patrick, a longtime defender of Second Amendment rights, came after the lieutenant governor this month said background checks should be required for stranger-to-stranger assault weapons sales.

"You know my plan exempts family and friends," Patrick tweeted back at 10 a.m., "so apparently you are fine with selling your guns to total strangers who can’t pass a background check because they could be a violent felon or someone bent on mass violence."

The second-term lieutenant governor took it a step further, referencing Sullivan's secretly recorded conversation with Bonnen, during which he alleges the speaker encouraged him to campaign against sitting Republican House members.

"BTW, release the tape," Patrick said, completing his tweeted response. "You are destroying our party."

The back-and-forth caught notice in the Capitol community and beyond. Tea party Republican House member Jonathan Stickland chimed in, accusing Patrick of undermining a key pillar in the GOP platform.

"No @DanPatrick you sir are destroying our party," said Stickland, who represents part of Tarrant County and is not seeking re-election next year. "You are the politician who has forgotten who brought you to the dance. You’ve publicly been taking a dump on our party platform & our long held support of the #2A (Second Amendment). You will own the election results not the grassroots!"

Dana Loesch, a former spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association who remain active in the gun rights movement, accused Patrick of backing a federal firearms registry.

Later in the day, Patrick issued a statement through his political operation that echoed Sullivan's initial criticism of O'Rourke.

“When I heard Beto’s now infamous statement in the debate last week – “hell yes we are going to take your AR-15’s and your AK-47’s...” my first thought was, thank God he lost to Ted Cruz, Patrick said. "Because the Texas press never asked him any serious questions in that race, it wasn’t clear until now what a radical left-winger he is – the most radical of all the looney leftists and socialists currently running for president.

“My second thought was he will never be a threat in Texas politics again, Patrick added. "He’s stuck in tiny single digits in the polls, so he’s not going to be president, but now the Democrats can’t even put him on the ticket with the hope that he will help win Texas. He’s a gun confiscator – he’s done in our state.

The Patrick-Sullivan scuffle represents a schism between two longtime allies in the conservative movement. The political arm of Sullivan's Empower Texans has donated close to $900,000 to Patrick since 2012. Patrick has been in near lockstep agreement with the organization on issues ranging from further restrictions on abortion rights to efforts to lower taxes and government regulations on business.

This year, at the start of the legislative session, Patrick as president of the Texas Senate supported granting media credentials and Senate floor privileges to Empower Texans' newsletter, Texas Scorecard.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

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