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After a summer of intense partisan conflict across two special sessions of the Texas Legislature, the latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll finds Texas voters in broad agreement with efforts to respond to issues related to the deadly July 4th floods and to more reductions in property taxes, but finds significant partisan divisions in their views of redistricting and most other issues on the special session agenda. As state leaders were struggled through a legislative agenda that generated conflict both between and within the political parties, Texans’ concerns about economic issues, especially the prices they’re are paying for essentials like food, housing, and healthcare, continued to grow.

The following section briefly summarizes key findings in the poll, and is followed by links to sections with more extensive discussion of the results.

Key findings 

• “Responding to issues related to the flooding in Central Texas in early July” was deemed extremely (55%) or very important (27%) for the legislature to address; only 3% said it was not very (1%) or not important (2%).
• Two other measures were judged extremely or very important by 60% or more of Texas voters: Attempting to further reduce property taxes (43% extremely, 27% very important) and prohibiting local governments from using public money to pay lobbyists or organizations to represent their interests before the Texas Legislature (38% extremely, 26% very)
• “Comprehensively regulating hemp-derived products without banning them” received the lowest importance rating from among the nine special-session policy areas surveyed. 32% of Texas voters said it was either extremely (14%) or very important (18%) for the legislature to address this; 22% said it was somewhat important, while 33% said it was “not very” (15%) or “not important” (18%).
• More Texas voters said they disapproved (41%) than approved (34%) of “current efforts to redraw Texas’ congressional district lines,” with 65% of Republicans but only 7% of Democrats and 13% of independents approving.
• For the first time since August 2023, a majority of Texas voters, 53%, say that the state is on the wrong track, with only 38% saying that the state is headed in the right direction.
• For the first time in the UT/TxPP time series, more voters disagree that the Texas model of government is a good model for other states to follow than agree.
• Donald Trump’s job approval ratings moved very little compared to the June UT/Texas Politics Project Poll: 43% approved of his performance as president, while 50% disapproved, compared 44% approval and 51% disapproval in June polling. 
• 40% approve and 50% disapprove of the job Greg Abbott is doing as governor; 30% approved and 44% disapproved of the job Dan Patrick is doing as lieutenant governor,
• More than half of Texas voters reported being “very concerned” about the “price of food and consumer goods” (64%, up from 60% in June), “the cost of healthcare” (63%, up from 61% in June), and “the cost of housing” (56%, up from 53% in June).
• Among announced and potential Republican candidates In the high-profile U.S. Senate race, 55% of Republican voters hold a favorable view of Attorney General Ken Paxton, 42% of Senator John Cornyn, and 22% of Congressman Wesley Hunt (who has not joined the race).
• Among announced and potential Democratic candidates in the U.S. Senate race, 63% of Democrats hold a favorable impression of former congressman Colin Allred and 31% of State Representative James Talarico. Among those discussed as possible entrants in the race, 73% of Texas Democrats viewed former congressman Beto O’Rourke favorably, while 61% view congresswoman Jasmine Crockett favorably.

Poll Summary

The latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll surveyed 1200 registered voters in Texas between August 22 and September 1, 2025. Data was collected by YouGov based on a questionnaire created by researchers at the Texas Politics Project at The University of Texas at Austin. The margin of error is +/- 2.83% (3.28% adjusted for weighting). For more extensive methodological and sampling information, see the poll summary or data archive.

Click on the links below to jump to discussion of specific subjects.

Special session priorities
Rising prices still dominating Texans’ economic concerns
Redistricting
THC Politics
Texas Floods
Texas’ Trajectory
Assessments of Texas leaders
Donald Trump
Tariffs
Trump Tax and Spending (“One Big Beautiful Bill Act”)
Early indicators for the 2026 Senate Race in Texas

Special Session Priorities

Asked how important it was for the legislature to address different policy priorities included on the special session call, “responding to issues related to the flooding in Central Texas in early July” was judged as "extremely" or “very” important by the largest share of Texas voters. The poll found broad consensus on responding to the July 4 flooding in Texas that resulted in at least 135 deaths: 82% said that “responding to issues related to the flooding in Central Texas in early July” was extremely (55%) or very (27%) important, while only 3% said “not very important” (1%) or “not important” (2%). The legislature passed several measures in reponse to the July 4 flooding during the two special sessions.

At the bottom of the list of priorities assessed in the poll, only 32% of Texas voters surveyed said that “comprehensively regulating hemp-derived products without banning them” was extremely (14%) or very important (18%); 22% said it was “somewhat important,” while 33% said it was “not very” (15%) or “not important” (18%). Unable to settle on a compromise between Lt. Gov. Patrick's expressed desire for a comprehensive band and  the governor's call for regulation without prohibition of hemp products, negotiations between state leaders on the final day of the session failed to result in legislative action.

Two other measures were judged extremely or very important for the legislature to address by 60% or more of Texas voters, based on a substantial degree of support for addressing the issue from Democrats and independents as well as consistent support from large majorities of Republicans:

• Attempting to further reduce property taxes – 70% (43% extremely, 27% very important)
• Prohibiting local governments from using public money to pay lobbyists or organizations to represent their interests before the Texas Legislature – 64% (38% extremely important, 26% very)

Legisltive conflict among Republicans in both chambers over a controversial measure designed to lower the threshold for triggering property tax elections in localities failed to result in further action by the legislature on property tax increases. The Senate passed a measure banning "taxpayer funded lobbying," but the measure died in committee in the House.

Below the three items to which Texas voters attributed the highest levels of importance, lower levels of urgency among Democrats and independents reduced the overall importance attributed to other policy areas on the Governor’s special session agenda.

• Requiring people to use restrooms that match their birth gender in government and public school buildings – 52% (36% extremely important, 16% somewhat important)
• Revising congressional districts in Texas before the 2026 election - 45% (27% extremely important, 18% very important)
• Eliminating and replacing the STAAR test – 41% (21% extremely important, 21% very important)
• Protecting law enforcement officers from public disclosure of complaints that resulted in no disciplinary or legal action – 39% (19% extremely important, 20% very important)
• Comprehensively regulating hemp-derived products without banning them – 32% (14% extremely important, 18% very important)
• Enacting new restrictions on abortion access – 36% (21% extremely important, 15% very important)

Legislators succeeded in passing measures in all of these areas with the exception of regulating hemp products.

Reflecting the nature of the agenda items as selected by the state’s Republican Governor and de facto party leader, majorities of Republican voters indicated that three policy areas were “extremely important” for the legislature to address:

• Attempting to further reduce property taxes – 85% (55% extremely important, 30% very important)
• Responding to issues related to the flooding in Central Texas in early July – 84% (57% extremely important, 27% very important)
• Requiring people to use restrooms that match their birth gender in government and public school buildings – 82% (61% extremely important, 21% somewhat important)

When combining those who said that it was either “extremely important” or “very important” for the legislature to address, majorities agreed in seven of the nine policy areas except “enacting new restrictions on abortion access”, where only 48% of Republicans said it was either “extremely” (28%) or “very important” (20%) and “comprehensively regulating hemp-derived products without banning them,” with only 36% saying this was “extremely important” (17%) or “very important” (19%). (See below for more results reflecting Gov. Abbott’s  trajectory of Abbott’s approval ratings after the special sessions.)

Prices Still Dominate Texans’ Economic Concerns

While the fight over mid-decade redistricting and the internecine fights in the legislature over other, primarily state-level issues have dominated coverage of Texas politics throughout the contentious special sessions called by Gov. Abbott, worries about the economy in general and prices in particular continue to loom large for Texas voters.

Economic concerns maintain pride of place in Texans’ judgments of the most important problems facing the state. One in five Texans, 20%, said either “inflation/rising prices” (13%) or “the economy” (7%) were the most important problems facing the state; more than one in four, 27%, cited the same items as the most important issues facing the country (16% inflation/prices, 11% the economy).

When asked how concerned they were about various economic issues, the poll found consistent incremental increases in already widespread concerns about the cost of core necessities compared to June polling. More than half of Texas voters reported being “very concerned” about the “prices of food and consumer goods” (64%, up from 60% in June), “the cost of healthcare” (63%, up from 61% in June), and “the cost of housing” (56%, up from 53% in June). Amidst stagnant oil prices, voters in oil rich Texas were significantly less concerned about the price of gasoline and energy — a comparatively lower 40% were very concerned, statistically indistinguishable from 39% in June. (For complete results from the battery of 13 economic concerns evaluated in the poll, see page 21 of the poll summary, or use the Texas Politics search tool.)

Asked to assess their personal economic circumstance “compared to a year ago,” fewer than one in four Texas voters, 23%, say that they are better off now, while 40% say that they’re doing worse. Asked to make the same assessment of the national economy compared to one year ago, half (50%) judged the U.S. economy worse, while 34% found it better, a very slight improvement from opinions in June (51% worse, 30% better), but a significant decline from the beginning of the year, when 39% judged the economy worse off in February polling.

Expectations of what the economy will look like one year in the future remain, on balance, negative, with 40% of Texas voters expecting the economy to be worse and 34% expecting it to be better, 18% expecting it to be “about the same” and 7% expressing no opinion. These results continue a trend of deterioration in the confidence Texans express about the economy’s future performance. In December 2024 polling, a majority of Texas voters, 52%, said that they expected the economy to improve over the next year, but since then, the share expecting improvement has consistently declined with each of four successive polls — with the 34% in this poll matching the low measured in June of 2024 and the 40% expecting the economy to be worse one year from now representing a new high.

Redistricting

The battle over mid-decade redistricting of Texas’ Congressional seats engulfed the special sessions of the Texas Legislature in both the national politics of the 2026 midterm elections and the inherently intense, political conflict that any redistricting effort engenders.

The straightforwardly public nature of the partisanship shaping this redistricting fight elicited largely partisan assessments from Texas voters in the poll, which was conducted as the intense politics of both the fight in Texas and its national reverberations were at a high point.

The issue gained a good deal of public attention: 80% of Texas voters reported having heard “a lot” (59%) or “some” (21%) about the efforts to redraw Texas’ congressional maps.

More Texas voters said they disapproved (41%) than approved (34%) of “current efforts to redraw Texas’ congressional district lines,” with Republicans predictably much more approving (65%) than disapproving (10%), though a non-trivial share were either neutral (15%) or expressed no opinion (10%). Conversely, 78% of Democrats disapproved (72% strongly), while 7% approved, with 15% either neutral (8%) or without an opinion (7%). Forty-one percent of independents disapproved, with 13% approving.

Democratic House members framed their return to the legislature after leaving the state as having achieved the goals of earning national attention to the issue, and providing time to coordinate efforts in Democratic states to redistrict in response to Republican efforts in GOP-controlled states. These potential efforts in other states – most consequentially in California – triggered a debate among Democrats who have historically favored non-partisan redistricting but now find themselves faced with a new level of partisan redistricting efforts by Republicans at the strong urging of President Trump. 

The cross currents among Democrats are evident in Texans’ responses when asked about “current efforts by other states to redraw their congressional district lines in response to Texas.” Overall, 32% approved and 27% disapproved, with Democrats split evenly between equal shares, 39%, approving and disapproving, and the remainder either neutral (13%) or unsure (9%).

Republican support for mid-decade redistricting in other states is much lower than for the efforts made in Texas, but still outpaces the share disapproving. Among Republicans, 32% approve of current efforts in other states to redistrict while slightly less than one in five Republicans (19%) disapprove; more than a third (36%) are neutral in response to these efforts, and 14% don’t have an opinion.

Asked to evaluate the efforts of different actors in Texas’ mid-decade redistricting efforts ahead of the 2026 elections, none of the eight tested received net positive approval ratings. Overall, 48% said they disapproved of how President Trump was handling redistricting (35% approve); 47% disapproved of how Governor Abbott is handling the issues (38% approve); 37% disapproved of Republicans in the Texas Legislature’s efforts (33% approve); 42% each, both pluralities, disapproved of how Democrats in the legislature and Ken Paxton, respectively, have handled the issue; while 41% disapproved of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s handling of redistricting, along with 40% saying the same about Senator John Cornyn, both pluralities. Democratic governors from other states received the lowest disapproval rating, 39%, but with only 33% approving, remain net negative.

In response to a question first asked in UT/TxPP polling in 2011, a modest plurality, 44%, said that they supported “taking redistricting authority from the legislature and governor, giving it instead to an independent, appointed commission,” with 28% opposed, and another 28% having no opinion. These results were largely unchanged from when the question was most recently asked in 2018. Consistent with the previous results, the proposal was most popular among Democrats (62% favor, 19% oppose) and independents (45% favor, 27% oppose), but less so among Republicans (30% favor, 37% oppose, with 33% expressing no opinion).

 

A note on timing: Democratic members of the Texas House returned from their quorum break for the second special session of the legislature on August 18 to participate in legislating leading to what they acknowledged was the inevitable passage of the new maps, which were approved by the House on August 20 and by the Texans Senate on August 23 — the August survey began fielding responses from Texas voters on August 22.)

THC Politics 

Regulating hemp-derived THC products was judged the least important of the eight policy areas being considered during the special session and assessed by Texas voters in the poll. Gov. Abbott’s veto of a broad ban on THC products, a priority loudly championed by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, triggered the eruption of rare public disagreement between the state’s two top elected officials. 

The governor subsequently included regulating the hemp product market on the agenda for the special sessions, though the call explicitly ruled out “banning a lawful agricultural commodity.” Overall, 32% of Texas voters surveyed judged “Comprehensively regulating hemp-derived products without banning them” was extremely (14%) or very important (18%); 22% said it was somewhat important, while 33% said it was “not very” (15%) or “not important” (18%).

Additionally, only 22% of Texas voters said that they thought the state’s current marijuana laws should be made “more strict,” with a majority, 64%, wanting the laws either left alone (16%) or made less strict (48%), the plurality position.

Republican voters were largely split in response to the strictness question, but with a majority, 55%, wanting the current laws left alone (20%) or made less strict (35%); 32% said that they wanted the laws to be made more strict, down 8-points from when the question was last asked in April 2025 polling.

Texas Floods

The flooding in Central Texas in early July topped the list of news items Texans said that they heard a lot about in the August poll, with 72% hearing a lot about the devastation. And while Texans unambiguously attributed significant importance to the legislature considering policy responses to July’s flooding during the special sessions of the legislature, their views of the factors contributing to the flood’s impacts were more subtle.

Asked to consider the impact that nine different factors had on the negative impact of the July flooding, two-thirds of Texas voters, 66%, said that “ineffective emergency warning systems” and “the unprecedented nature of the storm” were “major factors.” A nearly equal share, 64%, said homes and buildings being built in flood-prone areas were a major factor.

Slightly smaller majorities attributed blame to government actors, though still majorities: 59% said the “failure of local officials to respond to the provided warnings” was a major factor; 58% said the same about “insufficient warning of threatening weather” and the “failure of local governments to prepare for flooding,” respectively; while 51% said the “failure of Texas state government to support preparation for flooding” was a major factor.

Fewer Texans blamed their neighbors, with 41% saying that a “lack of individual preparation by residents in flood-prone areas” was a major factor, and only 37% saying that climate change was a major factor in the negative impact of the flooding.

Asked to select the biggest factor, 24% said the unprecedented nature of the storm, 15% ineffective emergency warning systems, 12% homes and buildings being built in flood-prone areas, 11% the failure of Texas state government to support preparation for flooding, and fewer than 10% selecting any of the remaining factors. While Democratic voters were slightly more likely to blame state government for failing to support flood preparation (20% compared to 11% overall), Republican voters were significantly more likely to point to the unprecedented nature of the storm, which 41% of GOP voters say was the biggest factor leading to the negative impacts of the flooding.

The State of Texas

In the midst of an extended legislative session marked by pitched conflict both within and between the two parties,a state economy subject to the same vicissitudes of a highly uncertain, national economic environment, and the increasing influence of national politics, Texans’ views of the state continue to grow increasingly negative.

In a question repeated in Texas Politics Project polling for over 15 years, Texas voters are asked whether they agree or disagree with the following statement: “Generally speaking, the way state government runs in Texas serves as a good model for other states to follow.” Between February 2010 and February 2025, a majority of Texans agreed with the statement on each of 14 surveys. In June of this year, at the end of the regular session, the poll found the first instance in which only a plurality agreed, 45%, with 43% disagreeing; while in August polling, for the first time in the time series, a plurality disagreed, 46%, with only 40% agreeing.

Over the last decade, both the extent and intensity of Republican’s embrace of “the Texas Model” has also decreased. The share of GOP voters who agreed declined from 88% in June 2015 to 75% in the most recent poll. The share who “strongly agreed” declined from 46% to 36% over the same period.

The poll also finds 44% of Texans saying that Texas’ economy is performing worse than one year ago, 5 points worse than June, and the highest share saying Texas’ economy is doing worse since October 2022. The share saying that the Texas economy is performing better than last year remains stagnant, with 27% saying that Texas’ economy is performing better than a year ago for three straight surveys (August, June, and April), and 28% saying the same for two prior surveys (February 2025 and December 2024).

And for the first time since August 2023, also, notably, after multiple contentious special sessions, a majority of Texas voters, 53%, say that the state is on the wrong track, with only 38% saying that Texas is headed in the right direction. Eighty-nine percent of Democrats and 71% of independents said that the state is on the wrong track, while 71% of Republicans say the state is headed in the right direction. Among independents, the 71% saying that the state is on the wrong track represents a significant increase over June, when 56% said the same, and marks a clear all-time high in the last decade of the polling series.

Assessments of Texas leaders

The combination of a highly polarized series of legislative sessions and persistent economic concerns appear to be exerting a drag on Texans' views of the state’s political leadership with the 2026 primary elections on the horizon. Comparing the results of the August poll to the previous UT/TxPP Poll conducted in June at the end of the regular session, Texans’ assessments of the job performance of statewide leaders were at best stagnant and at worst in decline over the course of the summer’s political turmoil.

The 40% of Texans approving of the job Greg Abbott is doing as governor represents an all-time low in his approval ratings in UT/TxPP polling going back to October 2014 (47 surveys in all). The 50% of Texans disapproving of his job performance matches an all-time high in the time series (August 2021).

These results are driven by polarized views, marked by the intensity of Democratic disapproval, combined with significantly less intense support among Republicans. Among Democrats, 89% disapprove of Abbott’s job performance, with 80% strongly disapproving; while among Republicans, Abbott enjoys a job approval rating of 76%, with 47% strongly approving and 29% approving only somewhat. Among independents, 55% disapprove, 19% approve.

The Governor’s net approval decline since the end of last year is worthy of note. In December 2024 UT/TxPP polling, the governor had a net approval rating of +21. Since then, his net approval has declined to +11 in February, +1 in April, -4 in June, and now -10 as of August polling.

The Lieutenant Governor, who eventually had a lower profile in much of the legislative coverage  focused on the governor and the Texas House, saw his approval ratings remain relatively stagnant, and negative. In August, 30% approved of the job Patrick was doing as lieutenant governor, the same share as the June poll; the share disapproving increased slightly in the same period, from 42% to 44%. The -14 net approval rating represents an all-time low in the time series going back to October 2015, with the next lowest net approval rating coming only in June (-12).

Like the Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the Texas House Dustin Burrows saw his approval ratings remain relatively stagnant since the end of the regular legislative session in June, and also in negative territory. Overall, 18% said that they approved of the job that the Speaker is doing, while 34% disapproved — slightly changed from the 16% approving and 31% disapproving in June. As is typical of Speakers of the House in contemporary history, more than half of Texas voters were either neutral or had no opinion.

The Legislature as a whole, the center of much of the summer’s political drama, saw a slight hit in already negative evaluations. Overally, 49% of Texas voters said that they disapproved of the job the Legislature is doing, with only 29% approving. Both approval and disapproval increased since June, from 26% to 29% approving, and from 45% to 49% disapproving. The 49% disapproving of the Legislature is the highest recorded in the time-series going back to 2011 (15 surveys).

Notably, given these negatively trending evaluations of state leadership amidst economic concerns and one-party rule in both Austin and Washington, D.C., a plurality of voters selected political corruption and leadership as both the most important problem facing the state (17%) and the country (21%).

Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s job approval ratings dipped slightly overall: 43% approved of his performance as president, while 50% disapproved, almost indistinguishable from his 44% approval and 51% disapproval in June polling.

While the one-point drop between June and August is not statistically meaningful, it does contribute to a downward trend in his approval ratings overall since February, when 52% approved and 38% disapproved.

The president’s standing remains steadier among Republicans, with his approval rating among Texas GOP voters still higher than those of the strongest statewide statewide officials. Trump remains the unambiguous figurehead of the GOP for Texas Republicans: a robust 85% of Republicans approve of the job he is doing as president, with more than half, 55%, approving strongly, and 30% approving somewhat, while only 10 disapprove.

The decline in Trump’s approval ratings among the rest of Texas voters is driven in part by his falling numbers among independents, a potential swing group in the 2026 election in which Trump and his leadership of the country will all but certainly be central issues. Among true independents who profess to not lean toward either party, only 18% approve of Trump’s job performance, while 60% disapprove. This is the latest in a steady decline in Trump job approval numbers since February, when 32% approved and 48% disapproved.

Nor, unsurprisingly, the President has done little to change the hearts and minds of Democrats who remain deeply hostile. Among Texas Democrats, only 5% approved of his job performance, while 93% disapproved.

As in much of the national polling on Trump, his job approval ratings among his partisan supporters mask declining numbers in key policy areas — most significantly, on his handling of economic issues.

Trump remains strongest on the issues that remain core to his political identity. Of the 17 issues on which Texas voters were asked to evaluate Trump’s job performance more specifically, he received net positive approval on only one issue: Not quite half of Texas voters, 48%, approved of his handling of border security, while 42% disapproved. On immigration, 45% approved and 46% disapproved. Voters broke evenly on his handling of “crime and public safety,” with 44% approving and an equal share disapproving.

By comparison, Trump fared poorly on the economy and adjacent issues. Voters awarded him his highest disapproval ratings on handling “inflation and prices”: 56% disapproved, and only 30% approved. He received similarly dismal reviews on “the economy,” with more than half, 52%, disapproving and a third, 33%, approving. Similarly, nearly half, 49%, also disapproved of his handling of trade negotiations, while 37% approved. His lowest net approval ratings were on healthcare, where only 27% approved and 49% disapproved.

Texas voters’ reviews of the President’s handling of redistricting were also negative. It is widely acknowledged, including in comments by Trump, that he instigated and strongly supported the mid-decade redistricting effort in Texas. Overall, 30% approved, while 47% disapproved.

Texas Republicans continued to strongly approve of Trump’s performance on the key issues that they cite as the most important issues facing the state and the country: his approval rating among Texas Republicans were above 80% of his handling of border security (90%), immigration (86%), and crime and public safety (84%). Three quarters (75%) approved of his handling of the economy while 13% disapproved; 74% approved of his handling of trade negotiations, while 12% disapproved; and 61% approved of his handling of inflation and prices, while 20% disapproved.

Independents rated Trump most highly on border security, but did not exactly heap praise upon the president: 30% approved with 48% disapproving. Only 12% approved of his handling of the economy, and an even smaller share, 10%, approved of his handling of inflation and prices.

Among Democrats, Trump’s highwater mark was 10% approval in response to his handling of border security, with 81% disapproving. Democrats' approval ratings for the president on all other issues polled were in single digits.

	Donald Trump Issue Specific Job Approvals (August 2025 University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll)
	Overall		Republicans		Independents		Democrats
	Approve	Disapprove	Approve	Disapprove	Approve	Disapprove	Approve	Disapprove
Border Security	48	42	90	5	30	48	10	81
Immigration	45	46	86	7	26	56	8	86
Crime and Public Safety	44	44	84	6	21	52	8	84
Foreign Policy	40	47	79	10	14	56	5	87
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (“D.E.I.”) policies	40	46	77	7	24	56	6	87
The federal workforce	38	47	75	9	17	54	5	86
The economy	37	52	75	13	12	66	4	91
Trade negotiations	37	49	74	12	16	54	5	88
Taxes	36	48	70	11	13	59	6	86
Government ethics	34	49	66	10	13	58	4	90
Government spending	33	52	66	14	9	69	4	89
Higher education	32	46	63	9	14	53	5	86
Inflation and prices	30	56	61	20	10	72	4	93
Abortion access	30	48	59	11	12	59	5	86
Redistricting	30	47	61	8	11	50	3	87
Climate change	27	46	54	10	9	48	4	87
Health care	27	49	52	12	7	59	5	88

Yet whatever the size of the speed bump the president may be hitting in some areas of public opinion, other national political institutions fare even worse in the eyes of Texans.

Reviews of Congress, even with Republican majorities in both houses, remain dismal. Overall, only 27% of Texans approve of the job that the U.S. Congress is doing, with 53% disapproving. Among Democrats, 84% disapprove of congress, with only 4% approving; among Republicans 52% give approving marks to the congress, with 24% disapproving, and 23% either offering no opinion (20%) or saying that they don’t know (3%).

A plurality of voters, 44%, disapprove of the job the U.S. Supreme Court is doing, with 34% approving. Among partisans, 78% of Democrats said that they disapprove of the Court’s performance, with 8% approving; while among Republicans, 62% expressed approval, with 12% disapproving.

Tariffs

President Trump’s tariff policies have roiled markets and introduced widespread uncertainty in the economy, as well as raising constitutional issues about his means of implementing them. For the third consecutive poll, results suggest that many Texans have negative expectations about their impact on the prices, their household finances, and the future economy.

A clear majority, 67%, continues to expect increased U.S. tariffs to "result in higher prices for everyday goods.” This share is  slightly lower than responses to the same question earlier this year (71% in June, 70% in April, 68% in February), but the time series suggests relatively stable expectations have set in among Texas voters.

Other results related to tariffs suggest similar concerns about their economic impact in other contexts. More than half of Texas voters, 57%, think the increasing tariffs will hurt their personal economic situations, unchanged from June polling; 17% think it will help and 14% expected no impact. A slightly smaller share, 52%, expect tariffs to hurt the economy in the long run, though a larger share, 32%, expect increased taxes on imports will help the economy.

The optimistic view of tariffs’ long-term economic impact resides mostly among Texas Republicans, nearly two thirds of whom (65%) think they will help, views consistent with some instances of President Trump’s messaging on the subject. The message hasn’t landed outside the president’s partisan supporters: 89% of Democrats expect tariffs to hurt the economy, and only 3% expect them to help. Among independents, 65% expect them to hurt, 15% expect them to help the economy.

Trump Tax and Spending (“One Big Beautiful Bill Act”)

With Donald Trump finally able to martial through Congress his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” a majority of Texas voters, 56%, said that they had heard a lot about the recent congressional budget in the news, with another 28% saying that they had heard “some” about it, putting attention to the budget squarely in the middle of the poll’s news attention battery.

Asked more directly how much they know about what’s in the legislation, Texans were less attentive: 17% expressed knowing “a great deal” about what’s in the legislation while 48% said that they knew “a fair amount” — 35% admitted to knowing “not very much “ (25%) or “nothing at all” (10%) about the bill. This lack of direct knowledge conditions both Republican and Democratic efforts this fall to shape voters’ perceptions of the legislation.

Evidence of uneven knowledge doesn’t mean that voters don’t already have opinions. Overall, 45% of Texas voters said that they disapprove of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed by Congress, with 32% saying that they approve. Among Democrats, 85% expressed disapproval, while among Republicans, 65% approved with only 9% disapproving, indicating room for Republican efforts to grow support for the bill. Independents were decidedly negative however, with 51% disapproving and only 9% approving.

Asked more specifically about their perceptions of the bill’s impact, a plurality of Texans, 44%, expected the bill to increase their health care costs, while a plurality, 38%, also expected the bill to increase their taxes. Only 11% of Texans expected the bill to lower their healthcare costs, while a quarter thought the same about their taxes.

Republicans were slightly more optimistic. On taxes, the plurality of Republicans, 45% expected the bill to lead to a reduction; while on healthcare, the plurality of Republicans, 36%, expected the bill to have no impact.

Early indicators for the 2026 Senate Race in Texas

Only 19% of voters said that they had heard a lot about the U.S. Senate race, again near the bottom of political stories that Texans report paying attention to in the poll’s news attention battery, the August UT/TxPP poll took a conservative approach to assessing voters’ perceptions of some of the political figures known to, or strongly known to be considering, running for their party’s nomination.

Among potential Republican candidates, 55% of Republican voters hold a favorable view of Attorney General Ken Paxton, 42% of Senator John Cornyn, and 22% of Congressman Wesley Hunt. Among the same set, 10% hold unfavorable views of Hunt, 17% of Paxton, and 25% of Cornyn.

Of the two sitting statewide officials, 59% of Republicans approve of the job Paxton is doing as attorney general, with 14% disapproving, while 47% approve of the job Cornyn is doing, with 22% disapproving.

The August UT/TxPP poll found Texans mostly delivering net-negative ratings to each of the potential Republican and Democratic candidates, with the exception of state representative James Talarico, new Democratic primary entrant. While Talarico received a net favorable rating from the electorate (16% favorable, 12% unfavorable), he was unknown to more than 70% of the general electorate.

Among more established Democratic figures, Colin Allred, who was defeated by Ted Cruz in the race for Senate in 2024 and was the first prominent candidate to formally enter the race, is also well regarded among Democratic voters, with 63% holding a favorable impression and 12% holding an unfavorable impression. Former senate, presidential, and gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke receives the most favorable views from Texas Democratic voters among the figures tested (73% favorable, 10% unfavorable). O’Rourke is not a candidate in this Senate race, but has been persistently flagged in the political press as a potential entrant. 

New to UT/TxPP polling, congresswoman Jasmine Crockett entertains a strong position among the Democratic electorate, with 61% holding a favorable view and 7% holding an unfavorable view.

State Rep. Talarico was more familiar to Democrats than he was among voters overall.  Following a coverage-generating appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast, the four-term state legislator is known to 40% of Democratic voters, with 31% holding a favorable view and 9% holding an unfavorable view. Widespread reporting of Talarico’s apparent intent to enter the race, first broken by Politico, occurred after the poll was conducted.

	Favorability Ratings (August 2025 University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll)
	Overall			Republicans			Democrats
	Favorable	Unfavorable	Don't know	Favorable	Unfavorable	Don't know	Favorable	Unfavorable	Don't know
John Cornyn	22	45	33	42	25	34	5	70	25
Ken Paxton	28	45	27	55	17	29	4	75	21
Wesley Hunt	12	17	70	22	10	67	4	26	69
Beto O'Rourke	37	44	19	7	78	15	73	10	17
Colin Allred	32	33	34	9	55	35	63	12	27
Jasmine Crockett	28	32	39	4	59	38	61	7	32
James Talarico	16	12	71	5	15	80	31	9	60