A round-up of Texas leaders’ job approval ratings in the midst of multiple crises

The latest University of Texas / Texas Tribune Poll contained our usual complement of assessments of Texas political leaders. In such an eventful historical environment, every polling period now seems to have some kind of major event -- in the artless language of the social sciences, we’ll call it some kind of “exogenous shock” -- and the period during which we collected data for this poll, February 12-19, was no exception, from the ongoing pandemic, the vaccine rollout, the statewide power outages, and some ill-timed travel by some state leaders. Below, find itemized job approval and related results with some brief commentary and, where it seemed interesting, graphics of some relevant cross tabulations or trend data. 

Governor Greg Abbott

The governor’s numbers moved minimally in a slightly less negative direction than October, though didn't substantially improve overall. The lack of improvement is particularly evident when comparing Abbott’s dominance of the state-level GOP public opinion space prior to the pandemic (and now, perhaps, to the power failures, though we’ll see if his extensive efforts to frame the collapse succeed in coming weeks). But the signs of erosion are clear, even if they are not anything near a total collapse.  For example, among Republicans, those who “strongly support” the job he’s doing decreased from 54% in April 2020 to to 39% this month. Overall approval of how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic fell from 56%in April to 44% in both October 2020 and February 2021. For all the high-visibility carping about Abbott’s handling of the pandemic by loud Republicans like RPT chair Allen West, approval of Abbott’s handling of the pandemic is high among Republicans, though it, too, has dropped -- from a stellar 86% in April to a merely strong 71% in February. 

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PollApproveDisapproveNeither/Don't Know
November 201542%29%28%
February 201641%29%30%
June 201642%31%27%
October 201642%33%25%
February 201745%33%23%
June 201745%38%16%
October 201748%33%19%
February 201846%31%23%
June 201847%36%18%
October 201852%32%17%
February 201951%32%17%
June 201951%31%18%
October 201952%28%21%
February 202048%34%18%
April 202056%32%13%
June 202049%39%13%
October 202047%40%14%
February 202146%39%15%
March 202145%43%11%
April 202143%45%13%
June 202144%44%11%
August 202141%50%9%
October 202143%48%10%
February 202244%42%15%
April 202247%41%13%
June 202243%46%12%
August 202246%44%10%
October 202247%44%9%
December 202249%41%8%
February 202346%43%12%
April 202346%41%12%
June 202347%42%12%
August 202345%45%10%
October 202349%40%10%
December 202348%41%11%
February 202453%37%10%
April 202455%37%10%
June 202450%39%11%
August 202449%42%9%
October 202451%38%12%

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PollApproveDisapproveNeither/Don't Know
November 201570%8%23%
February 201669%8%23%
June 201673%7%21%
October 201675%5%21%
February 201780%5%15%
June 201783%8%10%
October 201779%5%14%
February 201881%5%14%
June 201880%7%14%
October 201889%4%8%
February 201983%6%10%
June 201984%4%12%
October 201979%6%15%
February 202084%8%12%
April 202088%6%7%
June 202083%7%9%
October 202081%13%7%
February 202179%10%11%
March 202179%13%8%
April 202177%13%10%
June 202177%12%11%
August 202173%18%9%
October 202179%15%6%
February 202274%14%12%
April 202280%10%11%
June 202278%11%12%
August 202280%12%8%
October 202286%8%6%
December 202287%6%8%
February 202383%7%10%
April 202379%9%12%
June 202381%10%8%
August 202381%11%8%
October 202379%10%11%
December 202378%10%12%
February 202483%8%10%
April 202485%8%8%
June 202482%8%10%
August 202480%9%10%
October 202443%7%10%

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CategoryDemocratIndependentRepublican
Approve strongly4%10%39%
Approve somewhat9%23%40%
Neither approve nor disapprove10%21%11%
Disapprove somewhat20%13%5%
Disapprove strongly53%20%5%
Don't know3%12%1%

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CategoryLean RepublicanNot very strong RepublicanStrong Republican
Approve strongly31%35%45%
Approve somewhat42%40%38%
Neither approve nor disapprove12%19%8%
Disapprove somewhat7%3%5%
Disapprove strongly8%3%4%
Don't know1%0%1%

 

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick

The Lt. Governor’s job approval remains consistently even, though seemingly eternally in the shadow of the more well-known governor and the junior senator from Texas - more on that below. He remains a stalwart among Texas Republicans, yet still doesn’t ring much of a bell for about a quarter of Texans. 

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categoryTotal
Approve strongly20%
Approve somewhat17%
Neither approve nor disapprove15%
Disapprove somewhat5%
Disapprove strongly31%
Don't know12%

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CategoryLean liberalSomewhat liberalExtremely liberal
Approve strongly0%3%9%
Approve somewhat5%3%4%
Neither approve nor disapprove29%24%16%
Disapprove somewhat7%15%7%
Disapprove strongly26%21%40%
Don't know33%34%25%

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CategoryLean conservativeSomewhat conservativeExtremely conservative
Approve strongly21%31%55%
Approve somewhat16%41%22%
Neither approve nor disapprove26%13%9%
Disapprove somewhat6%3%2%
Disapprove strongly13%4%6%
Don't know18%7%5%

 

Speaker of the House Dade Phelan

The job approval ratings of the freshman Speaker of the House is right about where we expect them, based on the fact that he’s only formally had the job since the legislative session began in January and, well, because he’s the speaker of the house, elected to the body by the voters in his Beaumont district and largely unknown to most Texans. His numbers are very similar to speakers at similar stages of their speakership.  In addition to Phelan’s inaugural numbers as speaker, we also present ratings for Dennis Bonnen from February 2019, and Joe Straus from June 2013. The Straus number isn’t exactly parallel in the life of his speakership, but the numbers underline the point anyway.

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categoryTotal
Approve strongly7%
Approve somewhat15%
Neither approve nor disapprove30%
Disapprove somewhat6%
Disapprove strongly12%
Don't know30%

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categoryTotal
Approve strongly8%
Approve somewhat18%
Neither approve nor disapprove31%
Disapprove somewhat6%
Disapprove strongly10%
Don't know28%

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ApproveDisapproveNeither/Don't Know
November 201520%22%57%
February 201620%20%60%
June 201619%24%56%
October 201621%23%56%
February 201723%23%53%
June 201725%29%46%
October 201723%27%49%

 

Senator Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz continues to earn high marks from Republicans while Democrats express intense disapproval.  Data collection ended the night that the scathing story of Cruz’s overnighter to Cancun broke in The New York Times, and before Cruz’s series of mea culpas and shifting explanations dominated a weekend news cycle. While Cruz received some muted criticism even from some in his party, the well-established, deeply polarized views of him have only ever been affected in any noticeable way in late 2016, when his handling of Donald Trump’s victory in the GOP presidential campaign caused his approval numbers to dip among Republicans.  

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categoryTotal
Approve strongly33%
Approve somewhat12%
Neither approve nor disapprove8%
Disapprove somewhat5%
Disapprove strongly38%
Don't know4%

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CategoryDemocratIndependentRepublican
Approve strongly1%26%62%
Approve somewhat6%6%19%
Neither approve nor disapprove5%19%9%
Disapprove somewhat6%8%3%
Disapprove strongly78%29%6%
Don't know4%13%1%

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SENCRUZApproveDisapproveNeither/Don't Know
Oct. 201544%37%20%
Feb. 201637%42%21%
June 201635%43%22%
Oct. 201635%45%20%
Feb. 201738%39%23%
June 201738%44%18%
Oct. 201738%43%18%
Feb. 201840%41%19%
June 201839%41%20%
Oct. 201847%42%11%
Feb. 201946%41%13%
June 201947%39%14%
Oct. 201946%39%15%
Feb. 202042%44%14%
Apr. 202045%39%15%
June 202046%42%13%
Oct. 202046%42%12%
Feb. 202145%43%12%
Mar. 202143%46%12%
Apr. 202143%48%9%
June 202143%46%11%
Aug. 202142%46%12%
Oct. 202145%46%12%
Feb. 202239%43%18%
Apr. 202243%43%13%
June 202241%45%13%
Aug. 202242%44%13%
Oct. 202243%44%13%
Dec. 202244%44%11%
Feb. 202340%46%13%
Apr. 202345%41%14%
June 202345%42%14%
Aug. 202342%45%13%
Oct. 202345%42%13%
Dec. 202344%41%13%
Feb. 202448%39%13%
Apr. 202449%38%13%
June 202446%42%11%
Aug. 202445%44%12%
Oct. 202445%40%12%

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SENCRUZApproveDisapproveNeither/Don't Know
Oct. 201575%12%14%
Feb. 201665%18%18%
Jun. 201660%21%20%
Oct. 201664%20%16%
Feb. 201767%13%20%
June 201770%13%18%
Oct. 201765%18%17%
Feb. 201882%12%15%
June 201874%9%18%
Oct. 201887%6%6%
Feb. 201983%7%10%
June 201981%7%12%
Oct. 201979%8%13%
Feb. 202080%10%11%
April 202081%6%14%
Jun. 202081%8%11%
Oct. 202085%8%7%
Feb. 202181%9%10%
Mar. 202178%12%10%
Apr. 202180%13%8%
June 202179%10%10%
Aug. 202177%10%13%
Oct. 202182%6%11%
Feb. 202270%12%18%
Apr. 202278%11%11%
June 202275%11%14%
Aug. 202278%11%11%
Oct. 202280%8%11%
Dec.202282%9%8%
Feb. 202378%10%13%
Apr. 202378%11%11%
June 202377%10%13%
Aug. 202375%12%12%
Oct. 202372%12%16%
Dec. 202375%11%14%
Feb. 202478%11%11%
Apr. 202478%8%14%
June 202479%11%11%
Aug. 202478%10%13%
Oct. 202476%9%12%

 

Senator John Cornyn

Having been handily reelected in 2020 following an uptick in his job approval ratings, Senator John Cornyn returned to earth in the latest UT/Texas Tribune Poll. Cornyn was the only of the major state leaders with a track record to see a noticeable decline in his job approval numbers: 32% approved of the job he’s doing, while 42% disapproved, whereas in our October 2020 poll, on the eve of his reelection, the corresponding numbers were 39%/39%. So his net approval went from even to -10 percentage points. Cornyn remains adept at winning elections even as his constituents express faint praise for his job performance, with a large chunk (about a quarter in the latest poll) seemingly indifferent to his existence despite the fact that he is starting his fourth term in the U.S. Senate. 

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categoryTotal
Approve strongly12%
Approve somewhat20%
Neither approve nor disapprove18%
Disapprove somewhat13%
Disapprove strongly29%
Don't know8%

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CategoryDemocratIndependentRepublican
Approve strongly2%6%22%
Approve somewhat7%10%34%
Neither approve nor disapprove14%22%20%
Disapprove somewhat15%18%10%
Disapprove strongly52%28%8%
Don't know9%17%4%

 

The U.S. Congress

Always and still in the doldrums - the only political actors in the poll who admire Cornyn’s numbers.

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categoryTotal
Approve strongly7%
Approve somewhat15%
Neither approve nor disapprove17%
Disapprove somewhat14%
Disapprove strongly43%
Don't know4%

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CategoryDemocratIndependentRepublican
Approve strongly12%2%4%
Approve somewhat28%7%6%
Neither approve nor disapprove23%15%12%
Disapprove somewhat17%11%12%
Disapprove strongly16%57%64%
Don't know5%7%2%