Blog
Second Reading Podcast: What to make of the "contract with Texas"?
Jim Henson and Josh Blank talk about the politics and implications of the "Contract with Texas" recently distributed by a group of far-right Texas Republicans, and take notice of a new polling on the presidential and Senate races in Texas from the Texas Hispanic Policy Institute.
Second Reading Podcast: How competitive will Texas be in the 2024 presidential election?
Jim Henson and Joshua Blank look at past election returns and UT/Texas Politics Project polling data to assess how competitive the presidential election might be in Texas.
Second Reading Podcast: Court rulings, a Speaker's race, and the presidential context in Texas
Jim Henson and Josh Blank look at actions in the courts that influenced politics in Texas this week involving SB 4, abortion, and Ken Paxton, as well as the emerging Speaker's race signaled by Rep. Tom Oliverson's candidacy.
Second Reading Podcast: Federalism and the border in the spotlight (and the strange case of Texas Nationalism)
Jim Henson & Josh Blank look at the conflict between Texas and the federal government over border enforcement, and how it's fed the boom in attention to Texas nationalism (Note: recorded prior to the US Supreme Court lifting the stay on SB 4.)
Second Reading Podcast: The Texas Primaries deliver some drama
In a new Second Reading podcast, Jim Henson and Josh Blank look at the implications of the results of primary elections in Texas.
The Presidents Come to the Texas Border
National and state politics converge this week with the simultaneous visits of President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump to the Texas-Mexico border on Thursday. Trump will appear in Eagle Pass, the site of ongoing tension between state and federal law enforcement agencies deployed to manage the increased flow of migrants into the U.S., while Biden will visit Brownsville.
Texas partisans' views of the U.S. role in the world illuminate the roiled politics of U.S. foreign policy
For the first time in a decade of polling, more Texans in the February 2024 UT/Texas Politics Project Poll agreed than disagreed that “This country would be better off if we just stayed home and did not concern ourselves with problems in other parts of the world." The poll found 48% of Texas voters agreeing with the statement as legislation that would provide military, economic, and humanitarian aid to countries including Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan remains stalled in Congress amidst divisions in both parties about U.S. spending priorities, particularly Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Divergent attitudes among Texas partisans on the general idea of U.S. foreign policy and toward the countries involved largely align with the bitter divisions paralyzing Congress and pushing foreign policy issues into the 2024 presidential campaign.
Second Reading Podcast: New poll results as early voting kicks off in Texas
In a new Second Reading podcast, Jim Henson, Josh Blank, and Daron Shaw discuss the what results from the just-released University of Texas/Texas Politics Project statewide poll might tell us about primary elections in the state as early voter begins.
New UT/Texas Politics Project Poll: As primary voting begins, Texans see a crisis on the border
This post focuses on results from an extensive battery of immigration and border security results, then presents an overview of highlights from the February 2024 University of Texas / Texas Politics Project Poll. A majority of Texas voters support making it harder for migrants fleeing violence in their home countries to seek asylum in the U.S., while majorities also support many of the controversial measures undertaken by Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Legislature in response to the situation at the southern border that have received significant national attention this winter, according to the February 2024 University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll. The 59% of Texas voters who favor making it harder for migrants fleeing violence in their home countries to seek asylum in the U.S. includes nearly three quarters of Republicans (71%) and nearly half of Democratic voters (48%).
Issues, endorsements, and ideology: The public opinion context for the Texas primaries
The 2024 primary elections in Texas are among the most contested and the most heated of any legislative primaries since the establishment of the near-monopoly of state government after the Republican sweep of the 2002 elections. Governor Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick have all waded into GOP primary contests with endorsements, campaign resources, and very hot rhetoric in multiple House races, opposing an unprecedented number of Republican incumbents.