Mediaboss Marketing

Posted: 7:08 p.m. Monday, February 20, 2017

Poll results illustrate deep partisan divisions in Texas.

Overall, Texans views of Trump have improved since October.

Texas Republicans are more likely to think Donald Trump could make the presidency great or at the very least good again than they were before he was elected, according to a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll released Monday.

The internet survey of 1,200 registered voters, conducted Feb. 3-10, found that the percentage of Texas Republicans who thought Trump would make a good or great president soared from 52 percent in October, just before the election, to 74 percent a few weeks into the presidency, a 22-point surge.

While most Democrats continue to believe that Trump will be a poor or terrible president, those numbers are not quite as lopsided as they were before the election.

In the October poll, 91 percent of Democrats foresaw a Trump presidency falling into the poor or terrible category. In the new poll, that number has slipped to 80 percent fearing the worst of Trump.

In a polarized age, Trump is an especially polarizing figure. There are more Texans who disapprove strongly of Trump 40 percent than approve strongly 32 percent. But there are more Texans who approve somewhat of Trumps performance 14 percent than there are Texas who disapprove somewhat of Trump 4 percent.

Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at UT, which conducts the poll, said the results suggest that Trumps dominance on the presidential stage and the intense political polarization of the electorate are buttressing his support even in a state like Texas, which he didnt win in the presidential primary, and in which his 9-point margin of victory over Hillary Clinton in the general election was well below Republican Mitt Romneys 16-point victory over Barack Obama in 2012.

One thing is for sure, Henson said. If Trumps opponents are waiting for Republicans to somehow be turned off by what (opponents) see as the chaos of the transition, or concerns about the temperament of the president so far, they are going to be disappointed.

Henson said that right now, it appears that the only thing that could undo Trumps support with his Republican base would be if he were to abandon his hard line on immigration, which hardly seems likely.

Top issues

For Texans, the poll found that immigration is the second-most important issue facing the country, right behind political corruption and leadership. On issues confronting the state, border security ranked first, followed by immigration and then political corruption/leadership.

If Trumps ascendance has sparked a surge of activist opposition on Monday several hundred people were outside the Texas Capitol for a Not My Presidents Day Rally there appears to be little political incentive for Texas Republicans in Congress or in state government to part company with the president.

While most Texans overall think Trump lacks the temperament to be an effective president and is not honest or trustworthy, his positive numbers have crept up on both counts since October, and Texas Republicans are good with him on both scores.

Sixty-eight percent of Republicans think Trumps got the temperament for the job while 84 percent of Democrats think he does not. Seventy percent of Republicans said Trump is honest and trustworthy, a judgment with which only 6 percent of Democrats concur.

Right direction?

The degree to which partisan attachments affect Texans broader view of the world is very evident in the poll.

While a plurality of Texans still think the country is headed in the wrong direction, the 39 percent who said the country is headed in the right direction, versus 49 percent who think its headed in the wrong direction, was a marked improvement compared with the 22 percent to 67 percent right track/wrong track split in October. The current reading was, in fact, the most positive view Texans have had on the measure since the university began asking the question in October 2009 in the first year of Obamas presidency.

The lessening gloom since October was powered by a partisan flip Republicans now are more sanguine about the countrys future and Democrats less optimistic.

In October, 91 percent of Republicans, and 98 percent of tea party Republicans, thought the country was headed the wrong way. In the new poll, 68 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of tea party Republicans like where the country is headed. In October, when it appeared Clinton was likely to be the next president, 47 percent of Democrats liked where the country was headed. Now, 82 percent of Democrats think the country is on the skids.

Views of Trump also appeared to color Texans views of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose relationship with Trump has been at the heart of a series of controversies in his campaign and presidency.

Overall, Texans held a dim view of Putin by a margin of 10 percent positive to 62 percent negative and 27 percent with a neutral view. But 70 percent of Democrats held a negative view of Putin compared with 51 percent of Republicans.

The poll has a margin of error of 2.83 percentage points.

BY THE NUMBERS

46 percent: Texans who approve of the job Trump has been doing as president

44 percent: Texans who disapprove of the job Trump has been doing as president

81 percent Texas Republicans who approve of the job Trump has been doing as president

10 percent: Texas Republicans who disapprove of the job Trump has been doing as president

See the original post:
Texas Republicans think Trump will make the presidency great again - MyStatesman.com