President Joe Biden, who today is making since his January inauguration, starts his term with about the same numbers of voters giving him good and bad marks for job performance, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
Among registered Texas voters, 45% approve of the job he鈥檚 doing and 44% disapprove. Those results include 30% who said they strongly approve of his performance and 39% who strongly disapprove. The partisan lines are strong: 80% of Republicans disapprove, while 89% of Democrats approve.
鈥淓lection season always hardens partisan attitudes. That didn鈥檛 end with the election,鈥� said James Henson, co-director of the poll and head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know that we ever got out of election mode.鈥�
Biden鈥檚 grades for responding to COVID-19 are better, with 49% approving what he鈥檚 doing and 36% saying they disapprove. That鈥檚 an improvement over his predecessor: In the October 2020 UT/TT Poll, 45% of voters approved Donald Trump鈥檚 coronavirus response, while 48% did not 鈥� including 43% who disapproved strongly.
鈥淗e鈥檚 starting out, in a Republican state, with fairly respectable numbers,鈥� Daron Shaw, a government professor at UT-Austin and co-director of the poll, said of Biden.
The assessment of Gov. 鈥檚 COVID-19 response has improved a bit since October. In both polls, 44% said the governor is doing a good job, and the number who giving him bad marks has fallen 5 percentage points, to 41% from 46%. Public approval for Abbott鈥檚 handling of the pandemic peaked at the beginning; in the , 56% of Texas voters approved of his responses and 29% disapproved.
The poll was in the field Feb. 12-18, when battered the state and caused the state鈥檚 electric grid to lose control of the power supply. The poll was being completed just as the state began to thaw of U.S. Sen. 鈥檚 trip to Canc煤n surfaced. None of that news was evident in voters鈥� ratings of Abbott and Cruz.
The governor鈥檚 numbers held steady, with 46% of Texas voters giving him an approving job review and 39% giving him a disapproving one. In October, his results were 47% 鈥� 40% 鈥� virtually the same.
The same was true for Cruz: 45% positive and 43% negative in this poll, compared to 46% - 42% in October.
U.S. Sen. got positive marks from 32% of voters, and negative marks from 42% 鈥� a more negative showing than either Cruz or Abbott. In October, right before he was reelected, Cornyn鈥檚 job performance was rated positively by 39% and negatively by the same percentage.
Lt. Gov. 鈥檚 job review was flat: 37% of voters say he鈥檚 doing a good job and 36% saying they disapprove of his work. The state鈥檚 newest legislative leader, House Speaker , a Beaumont Republican, elevated to that post by his peers just a few weeks ago, still hasn鈥檛 made an impression on most Texas voters; 60% said either that they have a neutral or no assessment of how he鈥檚 doing his job, while 22% gave him positive grades and 18% were negative.
About two in five Texans, 39%, don鈥檛 have a favorite branch of government, mentioned first here because that answer outranked the U.S. Supreme Court and the judicial branch, 35%; the president and the executive branch, 22%; and Congress and the legislative branch, 5%.
With a Democrat in the White House, 42% of Democratic voters chose the executive branch as their favorite. Meanwhile, 50% of Republicans chose the courts. Among independents, 64% went with 鈥渄on鈥檛 know/no opinion鈥� over any of the three branches. Congress fared poorly no matter who was responding. It鈥檚 the favorite of 7% of Democrats, and 3% each of the independents and the Republicans.
Congress remains notably unpopular: 22% of Texas voters approve of its job performance, and 57% disapprove 鈥� 43% of them strongly.
Almost half of the voters who identified themselves as conservative 鈥� 46% 鈥� said the Republican elected officials in Texas are 鈥渃onservative enough.鈥� But 32% said those officeholders are not conservative enough. Only 12% said they are too conservative.
Among voters who identify themselves as liberals, 36% said the Democrats now in office are 鈥渓iberal enough,鈥� 38% said they鈥檙e not liberal enough and 9% said state Democratic officeholders are too liberal.
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.