Texas Republicans Remain Loyal to Trump While His Job Approval Sags Among Other Groups
With President Donald Trump set to deliver the State of the Union Address, the latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll finds the president hanging on to his support among Texas Republicans even as he struggles with stubbornly low ratings from Texans outside his base, and with slipping approval of his performance on key economic areas of concern to most Texans.
As in most national polling, the president’s approval rating remains in net-negative territory, with 45% approving of the job he’s doing and 49% disapproving, statistically identical to his 44% approval and 50% disapproval in December 2025 Texas Politics Project polling. His job approval among Texas Republicans is within the low end of the band in which he has consistently polled during both of his terms, with 81% approving and 12% disapproving, statistically indistinguishable from his December levels, when 82% approved and 11% disapproved.
As state and national Republicans attempt to retain their Congressional majorities, independents' views of Trump remain deeply negative: only 19% approve of the job he’s doing while 66% disapprove. Not surprisingly, Democrats are broadly negative in their assessments (88% disapprove, 11% approve).
Signature Issues Remain Trump’s (Relative) Strength
Respondents in the poll were asked to assess the President’s performance in a dozen policy areas. A clear majority approved of his handling in only one policy area, border security, where 52% approve and 40% disapprove. More Texans approve than disapprove of his handling of just two other areas, immigration (48% approve, 44% disapprove) and “crime and public safety” (46% approve, 43% disapprove).
Outside of these three policy areas, which are signature Trump issues, the president was in net-negative territory on the nine remaining issues assessed in the poll, as the table below illustrates.
Approval of how Donald Trump has handled each of the following...
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| Overall | Republicans | Independents | Democrats | |||||
| Approve | Disapprove | Approve | Disapprove | Approve | Disapprove | Approve | Disapprove | |
| Border security | 52% | 40% | 89% | 6% | 34% | 52% | 14% | 77% |
| Immigration | 48% | 44% | 86% | 8% | 20% | 58% | 12% | 82% |
| Crime & Public Safety | 46% | 43% | 82% | 8% | 17% | 62% | 14% | 79% |
| Foreign Policy | 42% | 47% | 76% | 13% | 17% | 68% | 12% | 82% |
| Trade Negotiations | 42% | 45% | 76% | 11% | 20% | 65% | 10% | 81% |
| Free Speech Rights | 42% | 45% | 76% | 9% | 17% | 66% | 12% | 82% |
| The Economy | 41% | 48% | 75% | 13% | 12% | 72% | 12% | 84% |
| Inlation and Prices | 38% | 51% | 70% | 17% | 9% | 75% | 11% | 86% |
| Government Spending | 38% | 49% | 68% | 18% | 10% | 71% | 12% | 81% |
| Government Ethics | 36% | 50% | 66% | 18% | 10% | 72% | 12% | 83% |
| Higher Education | 35% | 42% | 60% | 9% | 16% | 61% | 13% | 78% |
| Healthcare | 34% | 49% | 60% | 16% | 14% | 71% | 12% | 81% |
Disapproval outweighed approval of Trump’s handling of foreign policy (an increasingly central focus of Trump’s efforts as he threatens to attack Iran – 42% approve, 47% disapprove); of trade negotiations (42% approve, 45% disapprove – note that the poll was conducted prior the U.S. Supreme Court directly limiting some of the President’s ability to impose tariffs); and free speech rights (42% approve, 45% disapprove).
Given the centrality of the economy to Texans’ and Americans’ political concerns in an election year, Trump’s similarly net-negative approval ratings on economic matters stand out: 41% approve and 48% disapprove of his handling of the economy, and a majority (51%) disapprove of his handling of “inflation and prices,” while only 38% approve. A near-majority of Texas voters (49%) disapprove of his handling of “government spending” while 38% approve.
The president’s lowest approval ratings occur on the issues of government ethics (36% approve, 50% disapprove), higher education (35% approve, 42% disapprove), and health care - a key area of economic concerns in Texas, where nearly half of Texas voters, 50%, disapprove of how Trump has handled the issue with only a little more than a third (34%) approving.
With foreign policy increasingly front-and-center of the administration’s agenda, the survey asked Texans whether they approve or disapprove of Donald Trump’s handling of four recent foreign policy issues. In response to each, the president finds himself in net-negative approval territory: 37% disapprove of his handling of protests in Iran (34% approve); 43% disapprove of his handling of Venezuela (40% approve); 44% disapprove of his handling of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine (36% approve); and 50% disapprove of his handling of Greenland (30% approve).
While 66% to 80% of Democrats disapprove of President Trump’s handling of these four foreign policy issue areas, a majority of Republicans approve in all four cases, though with a significant degree of variation. Among Republicans, 71% approve of the president’s handling of Venezuela (11%) disapprove; 62% his handling of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine (13% disapprove); 58% his handling of protests in Iran (10% disapprove); and 54% his handling of Greenland (21% disapprove).
Context: Economic Concerns
Economic issues topped Texas voters’ list of the most important problems facing the country. Slightly more than a quarter of Texas voters (26%) cited either “inflation/higher prices” (14%) or the economy (12%) as the most important problems facing the U.S., followed by the 19% who chose “political corruption/leadership” at a time when the president and his party hold a de facto monopoly on leadership of national political institutions.
The focus on economic problems was stronger among Democrats (25%) and independents (35%), but also prominent among Republicans (25%). Not surprisingly, “political corruption/leadership” was a more prevalent concern about Democrats (30%) and independents (25%) than it was among Texas’ Republican voters (8%).
The president’s comparatively weak approval ratings on how he has handled the economy and prices land as Texas voters continue to rank core costs of living as their main economic concerns. More than half of Texas voters reported being “very concerned” about the cost of healthcare (66%), the price of food and consumer goods (62%), and the cost of housing (54%) in the February survey.
While Trump remains strong with his base, signs of cracks in the coalition that propelled him back to the White House in 2024 abound. More than four in five Republicans (81%) hold a favorable view of the president, but this is down from 11 points in February 2025 polling, while disapproval has doubled from a meager 6% to a notable 12%.
While the President began his term underwater with the state’s independent voters, with a majority holding an unfavorable view (53%) and 31% holding a favorable view, one year in, only 17% of independents say that they hold a favorable view of the president with nearly two-thirds, 65%, holding an unfavorable view.
Among the state’s Hispanic voters, unfavorable views of the president have remained relatively static over the year (49% in February 2025, 51% in February 2026), while favorable views have declined from 47% to 39% over the same time period.
Finally, in the state’s suburbs, where much of the political competition in Texas plays out in the general election, Trump’s net-favorability has flipped from positive to negative between February of 2025 (52% favorable; 44% unfavorable) to February of 2026 (42% favorable; 51% unfavorable).
For a more extensive discussion of the February 2026 UT/Texas Politics Project Poll, please take a look at the piece accompanying the release of that poll.