Blog Posts

The House’s passage of Senate Bill 3 may rightly be understood as yet another example of the current Lieutenant Governor’s historic power over the Senate, and how he has extended it into the affairs of the House.

James Henson and Joshua Blank look at the big issues still pending in the Texas Legislature, including property taxes, education funding, water, the budget, bail, THC products, and more as deadline pressures suffocate House bills. Also: #txlege theme songs.

The April 2025 University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll contained many items probing Texans' attitudes about policy and spending priorities, as well as attitudes about more specific policy proposals invested in bills now being discussed in the legislature.

After a brief post-election honeymoon in Texas, President Donald J. Trump’s job approval ratings have fallen back to levels found during his first term in office, as Texans’ widespread economic concerns persist amidst the President’s ongoing trade war, according to a new University of Texas / Texas Politics project Poll. With 47% of Texas voters approving of the job he is doing as President and 46% disapproving, Trump barely remains in net-positive territory in Texas, though.

In a meeting of the Texas Politics Project poll team, Daron Shaw and Joshua Blank talk with James Henson about results in the April 2025 University of Texas / Texas Politics Project Poll.

For the first time, the Texas Politics Project is joining other UT entities and organizations in the 40 Hours for the Forty Acres campaign. You can support our efforts to fund more undergraduate research assistants, who learn about working with polling data and other primary research materials as part of close collaboration with Texas Politics Project researchers.

James Henson talks with political reporter Austin American-Statesman's Bayliss Wagner about her coverage of abortion and other issues in the current session of the Texas Legislation, and other subjects including intra-party conflict in the House and the place of the Statesman in the Texas media environment.

As legal challenges to the Trump administration's deportation tactics mount, Texas Politics Project polling reveals the sources of support in Texas for immigration enforcement at churches, schools, and hospitals – and its limits.

James Henson talks with Harvey Kronberg, publisher and of Harvey Kronberg’s Quorum Report, about the vibes in the legislature as well as the longer trajectory of politics in the state, and the place of Quorum Report in the Texas media universe.

James Henson & Joshua Blank discuss the passage of an ESA bill by the Texas House, the vibe in the legislature ahead of the informal Easter break, and check in on how 2026 is shaping up.