The Deeply Polarized Public Opinion Context of Texas House Democrats’ Flight to D.C. to Obstruct GOP Voting Laws

The politics of Texas House Democrats' flight to Washington, D.C. in order to stymie Texas Republicans’ renewed efforts to pass a package of election and voting laws thrust those fleeing Democrats of the lower house into an almost surreal spotlight of cable news coverage Monday night. This is only the beginning of what is sure to be a long and tortuous battle between the Democrats, whose chances of actually preventing Republicans from passing some form of election legislation seem very long at this point, and Texas Republicans determined to press their currently advantageous circumstance in order to preserve and even sharpen the electoral edge they have enjoyed for two decades.

The politics of the situation are broiling in ubiquitous hot takes as stakeholders and media attempt to understand a situation that is in some ways straightforward, and yet complicated and unpredictable in others. The straightforward part of the unfolding political drama is that the Democratic maneuver comes from a position of weakness. The word “endgame” hasn’t been used this much since the final movie of the first phase of the MCU, but just how the House Democrats’ play winds up is subject to forces mostly beyond their control, from the decisions of Republican leaders in Texas to the very complicated position of national Congressional Democrats now being pressed to bail out their Texas brethren — and by extension, Democrats in other Republican-ruled states fighting similar legislation.

While these election fights have been going on for the lifetimes of some of the younger members now going to the mattresses in undisclosed locations around the nation’s capital, we’re still very early in this particular episode. For now, we’ve gathered some recent polling results that illustrate (yet again) deep divisions along partisan lines related to almost all aspects of voting. We start with results from University of Texas/Texas Tribune polling conducted during the session on specific proposals, some of which were in the late, not very lamented SB 7, and which have been resurrected in the new voting bills passed out of committees in the House and Senate over the weekend. We’ve also included results that illustrate those same stark, partisan divisions in attitudes and beliefs about how elections worked in 2020, how they worked in Texas, specifically, and dispositions about what needs to be done in the realm of election laws. And there’s a lot more from where this (generous) serving of results came from.

Table of Contents:

• April 2021 Legislative Results
• February 2021 State/National Election Accuracy Evaluations
• June 2021 Election System Attitudes

Results from the April 2021 University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll on Legislative Proposals Related to Voting

All results from the April 2021 University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll related to voting and elections.

Results from February 2021 University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll on State & National Election Accuracy

All results from the February 2021 University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll related to voting and elections.

Result from June 2021 University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll on Voting & Election System Attitudes

All results from the June 2021 University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll related to voting and elections.