Post Date: February 2024

The Presidents Come to the Texas Border

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

National and state politics converge this week with the simultaneous visits of President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump to the Texas-Mexico border on Thursday. Trump will appear in Eagle Pass, the site of ongoing tension between state and federal law enforcement agencies deployed to manage the increased flow of migrants into the U.S., while Biden will visit Brownsville. 

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Texas partisans' views of the U.S. role in the world illuminate the roiled politics of U.S. foreign policy

| By: Jim Henson

For the first time in a decade of polling, more Texans in the February 2024 UT/Texas Politics Project Poll agreed than disagreed that “This country would be better off if we just stayed home and did not concern ourselves with problems in other parts of the world." The poll found 48% of Texas voters agreeing with the statement as legislation that would provide military, economic, and humanitarian aid to countries including Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan remains stalled in Congress amidst divisions in both parties about U.S. spending priorities, particularly Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Divergent attitudes among Texas partisans on the general idea of U.S. foreign policy and toward the countries involved largely align with the bitter divisions paralyzing Congress and pushing foreign policy issues into the 2024 presidential campaign.

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Second Reading Podcast: New poll results as early voting kicks off in Texas

| By: Texas Politics Project

In a new Second Reading podcast, Jim Henson, Josh Blank, and Daron Shaw discuss the what results from the just-released University of Texas/Texas Politics Project statewide poll might tell us about primary elections in the state as early voter begins.

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New UT/Texas Politics Project Poll: As primary voting begins, Texans see a crisis on the border

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

This post focuses on results from an extensive battery of immigration and border security results, then presents an overview of highlights from the February 2024 University of Texas / Texas Politics Project Poll. 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 that have received significant national attention this winter, according to the February 2024 University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll. The 59% of Texas voters who favor making it harder for migrants fleeing violence in their home countries to seek asylum in the U.S. includes nearly three quarters of Republicans (71%) and nearly half of Democratic voters (48%). 

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Issues, endorsements, and ideology: The public opinion context for the Texas primaries

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

The 2024 primary elections in Texas are among the most contested and the most heated of any legislative primaries since the establishment of the near-monopoly of state government after the Republican sweep of the 2002 elections. Governor Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick have all waded into GOP primary contests with endorsements, campaign resources, and very hot rhetoric in multiple House races, opposing an unprecedented number of Republican incumbents.

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Texas views on abortion, the economy, and guns from the February 2024 UT/Texas Politics Project Poll

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

Policy questions included in the February 2024 University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll focused mostly on subjects that previous polls and observation of the campaigns have suggested are issues most likely to be salient in the 2024 election campaigns.

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Keywords: Abortion, Economy, Guns

Job approval for Texas statewide incumbents and other assessment trend data from the Texas Politics Project poll data archive (February 2024 UT/Texas Politics Project Poll update)

| By: Texas Politics Project

This page compiles graphics for trends in job approval ratings of the current statewide incumbents (Governor, Lt. Governor, U.S. Senators) that Texans rate on every poll. Bookmark the page for easy reference – we’ve also added similar graphics for trends in Texans’ assessment of conditions in Texas and the U.S., and some archival results for comparison with leaders no longer in office, updated with results from the February 2024 University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll.

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Second Reading Podcast: A Conversation with Ross Ramsey about Donald Trump and the Texas GOP

| By: Texas Politics Project

In a new Second Reading podcast, Jim Henson talks with Ross Ramsey, co-founder and former executive editor of The Texas Tribune, about the reverberations in Texas  f Donald Trump's presumed return as the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
 

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