Post Date: September 2021
The Second Reading Podcast: How Far Right is Too Far for the Texas GOP?
An Overview of Abortion Attitudes in Texas: Four Things to Know
The reasons for the Texas GOP’s leap forward on abortion restirctions after a decade of chipping away at access are likely many, and worthy of their own piece of analysis, but looking ahead to the next set of Texas elections in 2022, the sudden change in the reproductive health landscape begs the question: where do Texas voters stand on abortion?
The plot thickens in the GOP race for the 2022 Attorney General Nomination
State Representative Matt Krause’s (R-Ft. Worth) entry into the 2022 primary contest seeking the Republican nomination for Attorney General adds yet another potential obstacle to incumbent AG Ken Paxton efforts to get reelected for a third term amidst an already crowded primary field. See some public opinion context for the race, including job approval numbers for the current AG among Republicans and conservatives.
Second Reading Podcast: The Texas Legislature will finally take up redistricting next week
With the Texas legislature set to return next week to formally take up redistricting, Jim Henson and Joshua Blank talk preview how demographics, geography, and lots of politics will shape the redistricting process in the Capitol.
The national media are focused on Texas politics again – but what are Texas voters paying attention to?
It’s hard not to be struck by the spike in political stories coming out of Texas making national news, and we shouldn’t expect the national spotlight to stop shining on the state any time soon.
Texas Public Opinion and the agenda for the third special session of the Texas Legislature
Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation calling for the third special session of the 87th Texas Legislature Tuesday afternoon, adding four items to the agenda in addition to the expected focus on redistricting, and setting September 20 for the legislature’s return. n addition to the Constitutionally mandated drawing of new district maps for the U.S. House of Representatives, the state legislature, and the State Board of Education, Abbott called on the legislature to consider and act on allocating federal COVID relief funds, “disallowing” students from competing in UIL athletics “designated for the sex opposite to the student’s sex at birth,” prohibiting COVID-19 vaccination mandates, and the dog abuse bill that the governor vetoed after the regular session. We’ve compiled results of recent polling to provide the public opinion context for all but one of the issues on the governor’s call.
Second Reading Podcast: Texas attitudes toward the Texas Legislature in the latest UT/Texas Politics Project poll
Second Reading Podcast: Texans turn negative in the new UT/Texas Politics Project poll
New UT/Texas Politics Project Poll finds Texans dour and deeply divided
The latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll finds Texans in a dour mood colored by a resurgent COVID-19 virus, an economy recovering yet roiled by its impact, and state politics driven by increasingly entrenched and in many instances extreme partisanship, which is being accentuated by the Republican monopoly on state government. Texans expressed more worry about the surging pandemic and its effects than in June, and gave Governor Abbott the lowest job approval rating of his tenure in office. A majority – 52% – said the state is headed in the wrong direction, the worst assessment of the direction of the state since the inception of this polling project in 2008.