President Donald Trump is viewed favorably by 47% of Texas voters and unfavorably by 50%, putting his net favorability at -3. This is a significant decline since November, when Trump’s net favorability was +12 (55% favorable, 43% unfavorable). Additionally, the share of voters who view him “very” favorably dropped from 42% to 37%, and the share of Republican and independent voters who view him favorably dropped from 96% to 89% and from 49% to 24%, respectively. Overall, this represents the first time TPOR’s polling has registered Trump’s favorability rating as net negative.
Governor Greg Abbott’s net favorability also experienced a post-election decline. In November, 50% of voters viewed him favorably and 45% viewed him unfavorably (net favorability +5). In the latest poll, 41% of voters viewed him favorably, while 54% viewed him unfavorably, giving him a net favorability rating of -13. The share of Republican and independent voters who view him favorably declined from 89% and 45% to 77% and 21%, respectively.
Elon Musk—who is based in Texas and plays a key role in the Trump administration—has a net favorability rating of -10, with 43% of voters viewing him favorably and 53% viewing him unfavorably.
Of the political figures surveyed, Colin Allred has the highest net favorability, at +7 (37% favorable, 30% unfavorable). But despite having been on the ballot in November, one-third of voters have never heard of him or have no opinion of him.
However, from August to March, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s favorability rating improved from 32% favorable and 45% unfavorable (net favorable -13) to 35% favorable and 40% unfavorable (net favorable -5). Still, he remains underwater by five points.
The least popular elected official, political figure, or group of politicians tested is Senator John Cornyn; just 21% view him favorably and 43% view him unfavorably (net favorable -22). 29% of Republicans view Cornyn favorably, while 64% view Paxton favorably.
As with the recent Texas Politics Project poll, Trump is way less popular now than he was before. The two surprises to me are Greg Abbott’s low favorability numbers – he has usually been one of the most popular officeholders in the state – and Ken Paxton’s surprisingly strong numbers – he has never polled all that well. Abbott, like Trump, has fallen considerably since TPOR’s last look in December. Abbott does usually do worse during legislative sessions than outside of them, so perhaps this is part of that. Or maybe it’s Trump, maybe it’s vouchers, maybe it’s an outlier, maybe it’s something else. I don’t want to get too deep into this, and as always we should view these as individual data points at a particular time. I do believe Trump’s numbers will continue to wither, though I don’t know by how much and I don’t know how much of a drag he’ll be on others. We’ll keep an eye on it. This is where we are now.
Depends on how many jobs are lost and how much groceries go up.
That applies to all the MAGA, to keep reminding people they belong to the same team, hurting Americans.