Blog

“Likely Voter” Polls and the 2022 Texas Electorate

| By: Joshua Blank

Rarely is it made clear to the public consuming surveys what to make of “likely voter” surveys, which is why it’s so important, with the election just around the corner, for a quick explainer.

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Keywords: 2022 Election, Polling

Where are key groups in the Texas electorate on 2022 campaign issues?

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

In this election cycle in Texas, suburbanites, self-described ideological moderates, Hispanics, and political independents have emerged as important to the final electoral outcome and thus, to the campaigns because of their relative size and the fact that, as we show below, each includes substantial numbers of members of both parties. One consequence of this combination of size and partisan mixture is that even if targeted messages fail to persuade voters to cross party lines, these messages still have the effect of resonating with a campaign's own voters, amplifying the overall effort to increase their turnout.

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Public Opinion Context for the One and Only Texas Gubernatorial Debate

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

The gubernatorial debate between incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Democratic challenger Beto ORourke in McAllen, Texas is likely to be the only time the two candidates will share a stage in the 2022 campaign. The University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll has been exploring Texas attitudes related to the candidates and the broader context of the election over the last year, and got into extensive detail in our most recent poll, which was conducted from August 26-September 6. To provide context for tonight’s debate, we’ve gathered several results that illustrate how Texans view each of the candidates, their comparative levels of trust on the major issues emerging in the campaign, and more. This post is built for browsing 

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Second Reading Podcast: A conversation with state reporters about the 2022 elections in Georgia, Nevada, Ohio & Pennsylvania

| By: Jim Henson

In a special Second Reading Podcast, listen to a panel recorded at the 2022 Texas Tribune Festival last weekend with reporters covering the 2022 elections in four of the most competitive states in the country – Georgia, Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Jim Henson talked with Jon Ralston of The Nevada Independent, Greg Bluestein of The Atlanta Journal-Constituiton, Andy Chow, Statehouse correspondent for Ohio's NPR and PBS stations, and Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA about the dynamics in these four key states in a panel recorded Saturday September 24 at this year's Tribfest in Austin.

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Second Reading Podcast: The 2022 election in Texas through the lens of issue attitudes in the latest UT/Texas Politics Project Poll

| By: Texas Politics Project

In a new Second Reading Podcast,  Jim Henson and Josh Blank discuss results from the recent University of Texas/Texas Politics Poll on issues in the Texas gubernatorial election in November, including abortion, border security, the economy, gun safety and the Robb Elementary shooting, and more. 

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Second Reading Podcast: What the new UT/Texas Politics Project Poll says about the 2022 election environment in Texas

| By: Texas Politics Project

In a new Second Reading Podcast, Daron Shaw and Josh Blank join Jim Henson for a conversation among the UT/Texas Politics Project polling team about what the latest UT/TxPP Poll tells us about the state of play in the 2022 election. https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/latest-poll

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New UT/Texas Politics Project Poll: Abbott maintains 45%-40% lead over O’Rourke; 52% support busing migrants out of Texas

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

The latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll finds Gov. Greg Abbott sustaining a polling lead over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke, 45%-40%, albeit one that has narrowed as the gubernatorial campaign enters its final and most public phase. Beyond the top lines of the gubernatorial trial ballot, the poll results illuminate an election environment in which the gubernatorial contest between Abbott and O’Rourke is the most competitive race for the office Texas has seen in decades. Yet the results also reveal the advantages Abbott still enjoys among the Texas electorate, and the significant obstacles O’Rourke still faces in putting together a coalition of voters capable of overcoming the advantages, political and structural, that Abbott enjoys.

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Subscribe to the Texas Politics Project Mailing List

| By: Jim Henson

We send updates on new polling, data, and events via our recently relaunched email list. The emails tend to be short and relatively infrequent – open the post to fill out the simple sign-up form.

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Keywords: Polling

Second Reading Podcast: Principle and politics in Biden's push on democracy in America

| By: Texas Politics Project

In a new Second Reading Podcast, James Henson & Joshua Blank talk about President Biden's new offensive on the threat to democracy posed by forces in the Republican Party – and how much it will resonate in GOP-dominated Texas.

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Can country roads take Beto O'Rourke home?

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

There are Democratic votes to be had in rural Texas. Looking back at polling between 2015 and June 2022, on average over that time span, 61.75% of rural Texas voters have identified as Republicans and 25.61% as Democrats. The data don’t demonstrate significant fluctuations in the party identification patterns of Texas’ rural voters over time, though the Republican share has not been less than 64% in 6 UT/Texas Politics Project polls conducted between June 2021 and June 2022. Democratic identification among rural voters has stood at 22% in each of three surveys conducted so far in 2022. The remainder of the rural registered voter pool, 12.57% on average, identify as independent, by which we mean voters who neither identify with, nor consistently lean toward, either party. So while a non-trivial share of Democrats appear to remain in Texas’ rural areas, in the recent term, the GOP advantage does seem to be slightly on the increase — consistent with broader trends in party system dynamics.

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