Blogs: April 2025

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.

The basic configuration of public opinion before, during, and now in the wake of millions spent on advocacy and campaigning has been fairly apparent in University of Texas/Texas Politics Project polling over the last few years.

James Henson and Joshua Blank look at Texas public opinion on tariffs and the economy, and how economic upheaval might upend core assumptions about the state budget for the next biennium.

With the Texas House of Representatives scheduled to debate their budget bills (SB 1 and HB 500, the supplemental appropriations bill) Thursday, April 10, the December 2024 University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll asked Texas voters about their views of the state’s commitment to a dozen spending areas.

James Henson talks with Brad Johnson, political reporter and managing editor of The Texan, about recent happenings in the Texas Legislature, including the ESA bill voted out of the House Education Committee, the failed attempt to depose Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows, and Dan Patrick's presser this week. They also talk about The Texan's place in the Texas media universe, and other changes in the Texas media business.

However much (and how) Texas voters’ attitudes about tariffs are likely to be shaped by their direct experience of the effects, and by partisan attempts to shape those views, the widespread concern they express about prices is likely to continue to dominate their economic views.

Texas Senator John Cornyn officially announced his re-election intentions this week in a race that is expected to include a vigorous primary contest in 2026.

While pluralities of Republican voters approved of several of the specific tactics the Trump administration has threatened to use to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants, the poll revealed reservations among significant shares of the same partisans who profess to support the immediate deportation of anyone in the country illegally.