In this week’s Second Reading podcast, Jim Henson & Josh Blank consider State Senator Don Huffines’ just-announced primary challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott as an entry point to a larger discussion of axes of conflict among Texas Republicans. This topic leads to a discussion of the institutional politics underlying the version of House Bill 3 passed by the Texas House this week, which tinkered with the checks and balances in the Texas Constitution when it comes to powers during a pandemic.
The podcast included reference to a few recent poll results – you’ll find graphics of some of them below the podcast link.
| category | Total |
|---|---|
| Strongly support | 23% |
| Somewhat support | 22% |
| Somewhat oppose | 20% |
| Strongly oppose | 18% |
| Don’t know | 18% |
| Category | Democrat | Independent | Republican |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly support | 67% | 50% | 56% |
| Somewhat support | 17% | 18% | 21% |
| Neither support nor oppose | 10% | 13% | 12% |
| Somewhat oppose | 1% | 0% | 3% |
| Strongly oppose | 1% | 2% | 3% |
| Don’t know/No opinion | 4% | 17% | 5% |
| Poll | Approve | Disapprove | Neither/Don't Know |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2015 | 42% | 29% | 28% |
| February 2016 | 41% | 29% | 30% |
| June 2016 | 42% | 31% | 27% |
| October 2016 | 42% | 33% | 25% |
| February 2017 | 45% | 33% | 23% |
| June 2017 | 45% | 38% | 16% |
| October 2017 | 48% | 33% | 19% |
| February 2018 | 46% | 31% | 23% |
| June 2018 | 47% | 36% | 18% |
| October 2018 | 52% | 32% | 17% |
| February 2019 | 51% | 32% | 17% |
| June 2019 | 51% | 31% | 18% |
| October 2019 | 52% | 28% | 21% |
| February 2020 | 48% | 34% | 18% |
| April 2020 | 56% | 32% | 13% |
| June 2020 | 49% | 39% | 13% |
| October 2020 | 47% | 40% | 14% |
| February 2021 | 46% | 39% | 15% |
| March 2021 | 45% | 43% | 11% |
| April 2021 | 43% | 45% | 13% |
| June 2021 | 44% | 44% | 11% |
| August 2021 | 41% | 50% | 9% |
| October 2021 | 43% | 48% | 10% |
| February 2022 | 44% | 42% | 15% |
| April 2022 | 47% | 41% | 13% |
| June 2022 | 43% | 46% | 12% |
| August 2022 | 46% | 44% | 10% |
| October 2022 | 47% | 44% | 9% |
| December 2022 | 49% | 41% | 8% |
| February 2023 | 46% | 43% | 12% |
| April 2023 | 46% | 41% | 12% |
| June 2023 | 47% | 42% | 12% |
| August 2023 | 45% | 45% | 10% |
| October 2023 | 49% | 40% | 10% |
| December 2023 | 48% | 41% | 11% |
| February 2024 | 53% | 37% | 10% |
| April 2024 | 55% | 37% | 10% |
| June 2024 | 50% | 39% | 11% |
| August 2024 | 49% | 42% | 9% |
| October 2024 | 51% | 38% | 12% |
About the Second Reading podcast. The podcast has been produced intermittently by Jim Henson for the Texas Politics Project, with production support from UT's Liberal Arts Development Studio, since 2016. You can find past episodes and subscribe to the Second Reading podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.