Jim Henson and Joshua Blank look at Donald Trump's standing in Texas after his win in Iowa – and the long term roots of support for him among Texas Republicans.
Touchstones from the latest Second Reading podcast
Recent Texas Politics Projects posts on the public opinion context of the 2024 elections.
Some polling results mentioned in the podcast
On Trump support in the GOP presidential primary
| category | Total |
|---|---|
| Donald Trump | 65% |
| Ron DeSantis | 12% |
| Nikki Haley | 9% |
| Vivek Ramaswamy | 4% |
| Chris Christie | 2% |
| Doug Burgum | 1% |
| Someone else | 0% |
| No one/None of them | 1% |
| Anyone/Any of them | 1% |
| Don't know/No opinion | 6% |
| Category | Lean Republican | Not very strong Republican | Strong Republican |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donald Trump | 61% | 49% | 80% |
| Ron DeSantis | 18% | 14% | 10% |
| Nikki Haley | 7% | 11% | 4% |
| Vivek Ramaswamy | 8% | 5% | 2% |
| Chris Christie | 0% | 2% | 1% |
| Doug Burgum | 0% | 0% | 1% |
| Someone else | 0% | 1% | 0% |
| No one/None of them | 0% | 2% | 0% |
| Anyone/Any of them | 1% | 3% | 1% |
| Don't know/No opinion | 6% | 13% | 2% |
| Category | Lean conservative | Somewhat conservative | Extremely conservative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donald Trump | 47% | 72% | 76% |
| Ron DeSantis | 18% | 10% | 14% |
| Nikki Haley | 17% | 7% | 4% |
| Vivek Ramaswamy | 6% | 4% | 3% |
| Chris Christie | 2% | 1% | 0% |
| Doug Burgum | 3% | 1% | 0% |
| Someone else | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| No one/None of them | 1% | 0% | 1% |
| Anyone/Any of them | 0% | 1% | 0% |
| Don't know/No opinion | 6% | 5% | 2% |
| Category | Urban | Suburban | Rural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donald Trump | 67% | 63% | 69% |
| Ron DeSantis | 14% | 10% | 12% |
| Nikki Haley | 8% | 10% | 8% |
| Vivek Ramaswamy | 4% | 5% | 1% |
| Chris Christie | 0% | 2% | 2% |
| Doug Burgum | 1% | 0% | 0% |
| Someone else | 1% | 0% | 0% |
| No one/None of them | 0% | 1% | 1% |
| Anyone/Any of them | 2% | 1% | 0% |
| Don't know/No opinion | 2% | 6% | 7% |
Trump favorability ratings
| category | Favorable | Unfavorable | Neither/Don't know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 2015 | 54% | 31% | 12% |
| Feb. 2016 | 47% | 41% | 10% |
| June 2016 | 53% | 32% | 13% |
| Oct. 2016 | 60% | 30% | 10% |
| Feb. 2017 | 81% | 12% | 6% |
| Oct. 2020 | 85% | 12% | 4% |
| Feb. 2021 | 85% | 9% | 7% |
| June 2021 | 86% | 8% | 5% |
| Oct. 2021 | 82% | 12% | 6% |
| Feb. 2022 | 80% | 13% | 7% |
| Apr. 2022 | 79% | 10% | 10% |
| June 2022 | 76% | 12% | 11% |
| Aug. 2022 | 76% | 14% | 9% |
| Oct. 2022 | 82% | 9% | 9% |
| Dec. 2022 | 75% | 17% | 9% |
| Feb. 2023 | 79% | 12% | 10% |
| Apr. 2023 | 78% | 16% | 6% |
| June 2023 | 76% | 16% | 8% |
| Aug. 2023 | 79% | 15% | 7% |
| Dec. 2023 | 80% | 13% | 8% |
| Feb. 2024 | 83% | 12% | 5% |
| Apr. 2024 | 84% | 10% | 6% |
Views of Trump messaging on the 2020 election and January 6
| Yes | No | Not sure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb. 2022 | 22% | 67% | 11% |
| June 2022 | 20% | 66% | 14% |
| Aug. 2022 | 20% | 66% | 14% |
| Oct. 2022 | 20% | 64% | 16% |
| Dec. 2022 | 24% | 61% | 16% |
| Feb. 2023 | 17% | 69% | 14% |
| Apr. 2023 | 22% | 64% | 14% |
| Aug. 2023 | 21% | 69% | 11% |
| Oct. 2023 | 21% | 63% | 17% |
| Dec. 2023 | 19% | 62% | 18% |
| Feb. 2024 | 23% | 59% | 18% |
| Apr. 2024 | 23% | 61% | 17% |
| Category | Democrat | Independent | Republican |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly agree | 73% | 39% | 11% |
| Somewhat agree | 16% | 14% | 14% |
| Somewhat disagree | 3% | 8% | 19% |
| Strongly disagree | 2% | 23% | 44% |
| Don't know/No opinion | 6% | 16% | 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.