TEXAS (KFDX/KJTL) — A new Texas voter poll showed that Republican consensus is being met with increasingly divided – and concerned – Democrats with the main topic centering around the state’s border security policies.
A politics project poll from the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin highlighted that most Texas voters see a crisis at the border and revealed wide-spread margins for polls of primary races.
When it came to state border security policy attitudes, a majority of Texas voters support making it harder for migrants fleeing violence in their home countries to seek asylum in the U.S., while majorities also support many of the controversial measures undertaken by Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Legislature in response to the situation at the southern border.
Fifty-nine percent of Texas voters who favor making it harder for migrants to seek asylum in the U.S. included nearly three-quarters of Republicans (71 percent) and nearly half of Democratic voters (48 percent).
Additionally, nearly half of all Texas voters surveyed, 48 percent, think the number of migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border is “a crisis,” while another 23 percent consider it a “very serious problem, but not a crisis.”
For the matter of deportation, 58 percent of Texas voters agreed with the statement “Undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. should be deported immediately,” while 37 percent disagreed.
When asked “Do you think the U.S. allows too many people to immigrate here from other countries, too few or the right amount,” 49 percent said “too many,” 28 percent said “about the right amount,” and 14 percent said “too few.”
The state’s prevention of U.S. Border Patrol agents from accessing parts of the Texas-Mexico border is the most controversial of recent state policies: 41 percent of Texas voters are supportive of this escalation in the conflict between Texas and the federal government, and 44 percent are opposed.
Meanwhile, in the most closely watched statewide contest of the 2024 primary elections in Texas, Congressman Colin Allred is close to avoiding run-off in the Democratic Senate primary as he leads a crowded field of Democrats seeking to challenge incumbent Senator Ted Cruz, who holds a commanding lead over token opposition as he seeks a third term in the U.S. Senate.
Like many elected officials in the latest poll, Cruz’s job approval numbers among Republican voters increased in the first UT-Texas politics project poll of 2024, ticking up to 78 percent in February from 75 percent in December, and a 2023 low of 72 percent in October.
As for the presidential race, the poll found Donald Trump way out in front of any serious opposition in the GOP primary in Texas, earning the support of 80 percent of potential Republican primary voters, with no other candidate receiving more than 10 percent support.
In a head-to-head match-up between the current and former presidents, Trump bested President Joe Biden 48 percent to 41 percent, while in a match-up that included three candidates currently campaigning outside of the major parties’ nomination processes, Trump led with 45 percent, followed by Biden (36 percent).
Not only that, but when asked whose endorsements were most important to Republican voters, the top response was Donald Trump at 24 percent, Greg Abbott at 7 percent and Ken Paxton at less than 1 percent.
The job approval ratings for statewide and national leaders were as follows:
Greg Abbott: 53% approve / 37% disapprove (December: 48% / 41%)
Dan Patrick: 42% approve / 34% disapprove (December: 40% / 34%)
Dade Phelan: 26% approve / 29% disapprove (December: 22% / 31%)
Ken Paxton: 41% approve / 37% disapprove (December: 35% / 38%)
Texas Legislature: 42% approve / 34% disapprove (December: 36% / 39%)
Joe Biden: 42% approve / 50% disapprove (December: 38% / 54%)
Ted Cruz: 48% approve / 39% disapprove (December: 44% / 41%)
John Cornyn: 34% approve / 39% disapprove (December: 28% / 42%)
U.S. Congress: 26% / 53% (20% / 60%)
U.S. Supreme Court: 34% approve / 42% disapprove (December: 35% / 43%)
When it comes to other controversial matters, such as reproductive health care, gun policies and international affairs, a large amount of Texas voters called for updates in policy.
The plurality of voters, 45 percent, said that Texas abortion laws should be made less strict, while 27 percent said they should be made more strict and 21 percent said there should be no changes made.
When it came to gun reform policies, 73 percent of Texas voters demonstrated support for raising the legal age to purchase firearms from 18 years to 21 years. However, 74 percent of Democrats said the U.S. would be “less safe” if more people carried guns, and 51 percent of Republicans said the U.S. would be “more safe” if more people carried guns.
Additionally, when it came to the statement “This country would be better off if we just stayed home and did not concern ourselves with problems in other parts of the world,” 48 percent of Texas voters agreed and 45 percent disagreed — marking the first time the share in agreement was larger than the share who disagreed since October 2014.
To view the entire report, visit the Texas Politics Project’s website.
This poll surveyed 1,200 self-declared registered voters in Texas from Feb. 2 through Feb. 12, 2024, and had a margin of error of +/- 2.83 percentage points.
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