TEXAS, USA — Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott currently holds a 6-point lead over Democratic opponent Beto O'Rourke among registered Texas voters, according to a University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll released Wednesday.
"Texas voters have yet to focus in on these races, but there is nothing in the current data to suggest the Democrats are poised for an upset,” said Daron Shaw, a UT government professor and a co-founder of the polling project. “GOP candidates lead by anywhere from 6 to 12 points, which is in line with what we would expect of partisan vote choice in Texas. The big question for the Democrats is how to convince voters that Texas elections aren’t a referendum on the president and his party.”
The poll also included numbers on Texans' opinions regarding abortion, gun control and the overall direction of the state. A total of 1,200 registered voters participated in the poll between June 16 and June 24.
Of those polled, only 15% support a total abortion access ban and 37% support the state's "trigger law" that would outlaw abortions 30 days after the U.S. Supreme Court makes an official judgment on Roe v. Wade. Late last month, the SCOTUS decided to overturn the historic ruling, ending the constitutional right to abortion.
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The poll also states that "no more than 36% would foreclose all access to legal abortion across various circumstances."
"This is only the latest in a long series of poll results illustrating that most Texans oppose making abortion legally unavailable,” said James Henson, Texas Politics Project director and polling project co-founder. “Efforts by the U.S. Supreme Court and Texas’ political leadership to end access to abortion, especially in cases of rape and incest, go far beyond what a majority of Texas voters support.”
In regard to gun control, 78% of those polled support greater background checks when buying guns, and 16% are against such changes. Approximately 66% support red flag laws, while 24% oppose them.
The poll said these opinions closely mirror pre-Uvalde surveying about gun control.
The poll also shows that half of Democrats blame current gun laws for mass shootings, 25% of Republicans blame "failure of the mental health system to identify dangerous individuals" and 21% of Republicans blame "unstable family situations." Six percent of Republicans point to current gun laws as the greatest factor in mass shootings.
Of those polled, 59% reported feeling that "the state was on the wrong track," while 39% feel "the state was headed in the right direction." Much of the negative response stems from economic conditions: 58% feel the state's "economy is worse than it was a year ago," and 73% feel "the national economy is worse than it was a year ago."
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