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Texas voters are almost evenly split on the question of whether Donald Trump should be allowed to mount a comeback, according to the latest University of Texas\/Texas Tribune Poll.<\/p>\n
Asked whether Trump took actions as president that justify preventing him from holding future elected office, 45% said he did and 48% said he did not. Not surprisingly, 84% of voters who identified themselves as Democrats say he did, and 81% of Republican voters say he didnt. Among independent voters, 38% said barring Trump would be justified, and 47% said it would not be justified.<\/p>\n
Almost all of the Democrats say he should be barred, along with 13% of Republicans, said Daron Shaw, co-director of the poll and a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin.<\/p>\n
A similar question in the February 2020 UT\/TT Poll, taken after Trumps first impeachment, produced similar results. Asked whether Donald Trump has taken actions while president that justify his removal from office before the end of his term, 43% of Texas voters said yes and 46% said no. Then, as now, partisan differences were stark: 80% of Democrats said yes, and 84% of Republicans said no.<\/p>\n
These numbers suggest hes going to remain influential among these Republican voters, said Jim Henson, co-director of the poll and head of the Texas Politics Project at UT-Austin. Whether you like Donald Trump or not, these numbers show why Republicans are hanging on his every word.<\/p>\n
Trump is viewed about as favorably now in the state as he was in the UT\/TT Poll in October 2020, right before the election: 46% of Texas voters view him favorably and 46% have an unfavorable opinion of the former president. In October, his favorable\/unfavorable numbers were 49%-46%. And Trump remains in better light than he did right before his election four years ago. In an October 2016 UT\/TT Poll, 31% of Texans had a positive opinion of him while 58% had a negative one.<\/p>\n
He has completely consolidated his Republican base in Texas, Shaw said.<\/p>\n
The University of Texas\/Texas Tribune internet survey of 1,200 registered voters was conducted from Feb. 12-18 and has an overall margin of error of +\/- 2.83 percentage points. Numbers in charts might not add up to 100% because of rounding.<\/p>\n
Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.<\/p>\n
Correction, Feb. 26, 2021: An earlier version of this story misstated when the University of Texas\/Tribune Poll was conducted. The poll was conducted Feb. 12-18, not Feb. 12-25.<\/p>\n
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Should Donald Trump be allowed to hold office again? Texas voters are split. - The Texas Tribune<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. Continue reading