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. 

 

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. 

 

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.

 

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.  

 

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. 

 

The U.S. Congress

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