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AUSTIN, Texas — The 89th Texas legislative session got underway Tuesday with the usual hoopla and a new House speaker. Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, defeated the more hardline candidate, Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield.
The Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin published its latest poll on Wednesday. Among other things, it identifies what voters think the Legislature’s top priorities should be.
Unsurprisingly, voters said immigration and border security is the top issue, followed by the economy.
Twenty-two percent of voters mentioned the Southern border as the top issue, followed by the economy, or concerns related to high prices, which was mentioned by 16% of Texas voters.
Among Gov. Greg Abbott’s highest priorities for the session is the passage of a school voucher bill. That would send public dollars to private schools. It failed in the last session. Only 8% of voters identified public education as a key issue. That’s up from 5% in February 2023, though.
Those issues were followed by crime, property taxes and health care, which were each mentioned by 4% of respondents.
Pollsters said Republican concerns about immigration and border security far outpace other priorities, while Democrats’ priorities are more diverse.
Democrats’ most frequent priorities were immigration and border security, health care and abortion.
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar earlier this week announced the state has nearly $24 billion in surplus funds available. Texas voters said the state spends “too little” on mental health services, health care and electric infrastructure. About half of voters said Texas spends too little on K-12 public education and on children in the state’s care.
About 43% of voters said they’d like less strict laws when it comes to abortion, followed by 41% who said the same about laws regulating marijuana.
Forty-seven percent of voters said the state is headed in the right direction, and 38% said it’s on the wrong track.
The poll shows that most Texas politicians are enjoying improved job approval ratings. Fifty-five percent of voters approved of the job Gov. Greg Abbott is doing, 41% approved of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s performance, Attorney General Ken Paxton received 40% approval, Sen. John Cornyn got 34% approval and Sen. Ted Cruz received the approval of 49% of voters.
On a somewhat lighter note, the poll asked voters to identify the favorability of Texas’ public figures and celebrities. Willie Nelson and Matthew McConaughey received the most favorable ratings. They were followed by Olympic champion Simone Biles, Elon Musk, Selena Gomez and legendary MLB pitcher Nolan Ryan.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones received negative views from voters, with 24% holding a favorable view and 28% holding a negative view.
The poll was conducted Dec. 9-17, 2024, and included 1,200 self-identified registered Texas voters. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 2.83 percentage points.
