AUSTIN, Texas — A new poll of Texas voters shows former President Donald Trump with a comfortable lead over current President Joe Biden, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz also leading his Democratic challenger, Colin Allred.
The new poll from the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project was conducted April 12 through April 22, among 1,200 registered voters.
Major races
The poll found that in a 5-way trial ballot, Trump leads Biden by nine points, 45% to 36%. The pair are followed by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. with 8% and Cornel West and Jill Stein with 2% each.
Meanwhile, in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up between Trump and Biden in November, Trump leads by 8 points, 48% to 40%.
Two-term incumbent Cruz leads Allred 46% to 33%. Seven percent of voters polled preferred an unnamed alternative, and 15% expressed no preference.
Israel-Hamas War
This poll was conducted before the recent protests at the University of Texas at Austin and other Texas universities. However, it did find that 35% of polled voters were looking for the U.S. to balance support for Israel with the prevention of Palestinian civilian deaths. However, Texas Politics Project found that plurality was "statistically equal to" the combined total of those who favored a response primarily supporting Israel's military efforts (22%) or primarily working to prevent Palestinian civilian deaths (14%).
Nearly a third of Texans polled either thought the U.S. shouldn't be involved in the conflict at all (16%) or didn't offer an opinion (14%).
Border security
A majority of polled voters identified immigration and border security as the most important problem facing the state (39%), followed by the economy and inflation (15%), then corruption and leadership (10%).
Nearly half of polled Texas voters said they view the number of migrants attempting to cross the border as a crisis (48%). Another 23% said it is a very serious problem, but not a crisis, and another 8% said migrants crossing the border isn't much of a problem.
Among those who expressed concern about the number of migrants attempting to cross the border, a majority said they were "very concerned" about the strain on local resources (59%), the national security of the country (57%), the impact crime (56%) and the impact on the economy (53%).
Abortion
A plurality of polled Texas voters (45%) say that state abortion laws should be made less strict. Twenty-three percent said the laws should be left as they are, 20% would make them more strict and 12% had no opinion.
A plurality (42%) also said the state government is doing too little to "protect the rights of women who are pregnant," while 31% thinks the state is doing the right amount, 10% say the state is doing too much and 17% offered no option.
When asked if a woman who has an abolition should face criminal penalties, two-thirds of polled voters (66%) disagreed, including 79% of Democrats, 72% of independents and 55% of Republicans.
RELATED: Supreme Court appears skeptical that state abortion bans conflict with federal health care law
Job approval ratings
Forty-three percent of polled voters approve of President Biden and 51% disapprove. The U.S. Congress split was 25% approve and 54% disapprove, and the U.S. Supreme Court received a 41% approval rating, with 38% disapproving.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn received a 36% approval rating (38% disapprove), while U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz received a 49% approval (38% disapproval).
At the state level, the approval ratings were:
- Gov. Greg Abbott: 55% approve, 37% disapprove
- Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: 44% approve, 33% disapprove
- Speaker of the House Dade Phelan: 27% approve, 30% disapprove
- Attorney General Ken Paxton: 41% approve, 35% disapprove