Jim Henson, PhD

Reporting of this week’s UT/TT Poll can’t help but present a simple story: Davis is down, Abbott is up. But these latest results reflect factors that are much more deeply rooted than the low-hanging fruit making headlines and feeding campaign emails. 

In the short run, the GOP appears to be embarking on a winning strategy to mobilize a reliable and larger electorate using the rhetoric that motivates its voters. 

The Republican lieutenant governor candidates' views on abortion after rape, displayed prominently in Monday night’s debate, may have edged farther right than the Texas GOP’s comfort zone.

Everybody is nervous about privacy, and most voters don't have a high level of confidence in many public and private institutions. But their level of trust has a lot to do with their political alignment, too.

Democratic and Republican voters favor many provisions of proposed immigration law reforms and of the Affordable Care Act. But the rhetorical emphasis on unpopular provisions of those policies has made them nonstarters with those same voters.

If you want to know why Republican candidates for lieutenant governor favor teaching creationism in schools, just look at conservative voters' views on the subject.

Republican candidates in Texas have figured out how to talk about immigration without stepping on political land mines: They talk about border security instead.

As a group, women have neither followed the March Hare to the Tea Party nor signed up for Wendy Davis’ trip to Wonderland, leaving the campaigns to ponder their place on the electoral chessboard.

The state's senior U.S. senator, up for re-election in 2014, steers warily around the state's junior U.S. senator, who has been on a roll for the last several months. 

The latest UT/TT Poll showing a single-digit lead for Greg Abbott over Wendy Davis in the gubernatorial race raised some eyebrows. Adding some context to a survey taken more than a year before Election Day helps provide some clarity on the results.