If the race for lieutenant governor were a boxing match, Mike Collier would be the intrepid underdog — suited up, limbered up and waiting in the ring.

Problem is, his opponent doesn’t even have his gloves on.

For a year, Collier has pulled no punches in his fight to unseat Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. But Patrick, easily one of the state’s most influential Republicans, behaves as though he’s running unopposed. With statewide name recognition and a 4-to-1 fundraising advantage, Patrick has dodged Collier’s volleys, right and left.

It’d be hard for any boxer to expect a fair fight with their punches seeming to fall on empty air. Yet Collier keeps swinging. And all he needs to land a knockout, he claims, is for the fans to turn out.

"I'm not ready to say we're going to win, I'm saying that we can," Collier told The Dallas Morning News. "If Democrats turn out, we win."

‘What about you?’

Both Collier and Patrick live in the Houston area, but the two men have never met.

Patrick has refused to debate Collier or engage with his campaign. He hasn't sat down with newspaper editorial boards or answered their voter guide questionnaires. He doesn't need do these things to win, his campaign thinks, so he won't.

"There isn't anyone in the Lone Star State who isn't absolutely clear about where Dan Patrick stands on the issues," Allen Blakemore, Patrick's spokesman, said earlier this year. "He told us what he was going to do, then he did it."

Patrick rarely even mentions Collier. Instead, he's dipped into his coffers to support other more vulnerable candidates, to hold a series of traveling press conferences touting his 2019 agenda and to cut ads that attack a more amorphous enemy he makes out as a gun-stealing, unpatriotic liberal mob.

"Democrats support open borders, sanctuary cities, taking our guns and undermining the Texas values that protect innocent life and liberty. And they celebrate those who take a knee during our national anthem," Patrick said in a recent YouTube video. "Truth is, Democrats want to turn Texas into California. Well, I'm not about to let that happen.

“What about you?”

Sitting in a rocking chair on a porch, a tractor visible in the background, Patrick affects the perfect image of rural Texas idyll. A dog lays on the floor beside him and, as the ad fades to black, Patrick is pictured driving away in a spotless ’57 Chevy truck.

Dan Patrick, born Dannie Scott Goeb in Baltimore, Md., is the son of a newspaper vendor and bookkeeper. Before his time in politics, he spent years as a radio and television broadcaster in Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Houston. His first stage name was Dan Scott, but he later changed his surname to Patrick, his brother-in-law's middle name, to avoid confusion with a fellow broadcaster in Scranton.

Once in Texas, he opened a chain of sports bars. They went bust in the mid-1980s, after which Patrick filed for bankruptcy and returned to media as a conservative talk radio show host. He's written a book encouraging people to read the Bible — called The Second Most Important Book You Will Ever Read — and produced an hourlong Christian documentary, The Heart of Texas.

In the power vacuum left by former Gov. Rick Perry, Patrick has thrived. After eight years representing the Houston area in the Texas Senate, he challenged fellow Republican David Dewhurst for the job of lieutenant governor in 2014, unseating the incumbent by convincing voters he was the more conservative choice.

The lieutenant governor, widely considered the second most powerful elected position in Texas, presides over the Senate and has outsize control over what becomes law. While other men in the role have exerted influence behind the scenes, Patrick has been a far more visible leader. He's helped move the Senate — and therefore the entire Texas Legislature — further to the right, ensuring his priorities have become the state's as well.

In his first year, Patrick failed to repeal Perry's law allowing in-state tuition for undocumented college students but succeeded in sending hundreds of millions of dollars to the border for more troopers and cameras. Then in 2017, the last time lawmakers met in Austin, he had a list of 30 legislative asks. While many were held up in the Texas House, including the so-called bathroom bill, Patrick's priorities steered the political conversation all year.

If he's re-elected, Patrick has promised to focus anew on education and property taxes. His efforts to limit the taxing authority of local governments, which failed two years ago, would be back.

1 / 5Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speaks to the media to announce the grant funding for rifle-resistant vests for Texas police officers at Dallas Police Association Headquarters in Dallas on Jan. 9, 2018. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer) 2 / 5President Donald Trump speaks as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott listen during a hurricane response briefing at Signature Flight Support near Love Field in Dallas Oct. 25, 2017. Trump participated in a hurricane recovery briefing, a Republican National Committee round table and gave remarks at a reception. (Andy Jacobsohn / Staff Photographer) 3 / 5Mike Collier, democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, speaks during a "Texas Deserves Better Town Hall" for the candidate's Stop the Madness tour at Northhaven United Methodist Church in Dallas on Oct. 4, 2018. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer) 4 / 5Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Mike Collier speaks during a town hall meeting hosted by the Funky East Dallas Democrats at 2018 Kidwell Street on July 2, 2018. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 5 / 5Mike Collier, candidate for lieutenant governor, speaks during the Texas Democratic Convention on June 22, 2018 at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

Collier, too, wants to overhaul taxes by changing the system by which property owners can contest their appraisals. He says his plan would bring in billions in revenue from large and industrial commercial property owners that could be used to fund public schools, but conservatives challenge that claim and say homeowners’ ability to challenge their appraisals would also be hampered.

Collier has been making this same pitch for more than four years, since he first ran for elected office in Texas. Back then, he was gunning for the job of comptroller, the state’s tax collector. He says his tax plan is even more important now that he’s running for a position that could help make it law.

“Watch,” Collier said, smiling, “and I’ll rectify the state’s finances in two minutes or less.”

Like Patrick, Collier, too, was a Texas transplant, although he got here a bit sooner. The son of a worker at Westinghouse Electric Corp., Collier went to high school in Georgetown, where he marched in the band and was also the principal trumpet player in the all-state symphony orchestra.

He got his degree in petroleum land management at the University of Texas at Austin (where he also played in the Longhorn Band) as well as his MBA, and has since worked for Exxon and as a top partner at accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. This experience in finance and accounting, he says, would be invaluable to figuring out how to fix the state’s ailing school finance system.

Collier says it was this — education — that first drew him to politics. He stands by his proposals to fully fund prekindergarten programs and opposes so-called school vouchers. Charter schools are no longer fulfilling their purpose of encouraging innovation in public schools, he said, and should be approached “with a great deal of skepticism.”

Collier also opposes campus carry, the law Patrick championed that allows licensed Texans to carry concealed handguns in most university buildings, as well as the state’s recently passed ban on sanctuary cities. But he rejects Republican claims that his party doesn’t want a secure border.

“When they say that Democrats don’t believe that, don’t believe them,” Collier said. “We need to do it intelligently. ... We should do it humanely.”

‘Stunts and gimmicks’

Nothing Patrick has done surprises Collier.

When he refused to debate, Collier was disappointed, but resigned. When Patrick then challenged Geraldo Rivera to go head-to-head on Fox News, Collier wasn't shocked. And when that tête-à-tête, too, didn't pan out, he shrugged.

“I’ve never really thought of Dan Patrick as a serious person,” Collier said an interview. “I’ve always thought of him as a carnival act, a showman.”

Despite the Democrat’s criticisms, Patrick remains well-known and well-funded. As Trump 2016 Texas campaign chairman, Patrick regularly appears with the president’s surrogates and is a fixture on Fox and other conservative news outlets. His name recognition at home and presence nationally is growing, and with increased exposure comes more cash.

Heading into the final months of election season, Patrick has more than $8 million in the bank — compared to Collier’s $200,000 — and, in the last three months, he spent $7.4 million. That's more than 12 times Collier's fundraising all year.

Collier has relied on support from teacher and education groups, among his strongest backers, as well as many individual donors. Nearly 3,000 people contributed to his campaign between July and September. Patrick's donors, far fewer but with much deeper pockets, include oil baron Ray Hunt and Empower Texans, a conservative advocacy group financed by oil and fracking billionaire Tim Dunn.

These two donors — Hunt and Empower Texans PAC — gave Patrick $225,000 in August alone.

Southern Methodist University political science professor Matthew Wilson said these elements — plus the fact that Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office in two dozen years — mean the odds are against Collier.

"It be a real stunner for Republicans not to retain that office," Wilson said. Unlike the race for attorney general, in which Wilson says Democrat Justin Nelson may have a fighting chance, he'd bet "the top two state offices are highly likely to remain in Republican hands."

Yet still, Collier hopes to land that fatal blow.

Earlier this month, he hit the road with fellow Democrats for their final round in the ring. The “Stop the Madness” tour, as Collier calls it, will come at Patrick with everything he’s got left. He said he doesn't need the cash advantage because his digital campaign is punching above its weight, reaching voters unhappy that Republicans are "acting like complete buffoons."

Plus, Collier said, this time feels different. The Democrats have stronger candidates, they're running on kitchen-table issues and their voters are enthusiastic, he said, thanks in part to U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke's race to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

“In 2014, I was swimming against a hard current. I didn’t know any better because I’d never swam before,” Collier said. “This time around, we’re swimming with the current.”

Election Day is Nov. 6. Early voting starts Oct. 22. For more information on all the candidates running for office this year, check out our voter guide here.