diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/transaction/transaction_recovery.c b/src/backend/distributed/transaction/transaction_recovery.c
index 20c776afac3..7b23d99d7f0 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/transaction/transaction_recovery.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/transaction/transaction_recovery.c
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ RecoverTwoPhaseCommits(void)
 		 * Instead, RecoverWorkerTransactions() performs the necessary
 		 * sanity checks on the connection state.
 		 */
-		nodeConnection = lappend(workerConnections, nodeConnection);
+		workerConnections = lappend(workerConnections, nodeConnection);
 	}
 	forboth_ptr(workerNode, workerList, nodeConnection, workerConnections)
 	{