Texas voters give Legislature low marks despite supporting key priorities, poll shows

AUSTIN (KXAN)— Texas voters gave the state Legislature poor marks for its overall performance during the recently concluded session while expressing strong bipartisan support for several major priorities, according to a new University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll released Wednesday.

Only 26% of registered voters approved of the Legislature’s job performance, while 45% disapproved, the poll found. The approval rating represents a decline from previous sessions, with 37% of voters saying the Legislature made their lives worse compared to 22% who said it made their lives better.

Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project, said the findings reflect ongoing concerns about legislative effectiveness.

Despite the low overall ratings, Texas voters showed overwhelming support for several key legislative accomplishments:

• 84% supported increasing funding to improve the state’s water supply reliability
• 74% backed increasing funding for the public education system
• 71% favored lowering property taxes by increasing the homestead exemption
• 65% supported banning cell phone use in K-12 public schools during school hours

The poll revealed sharp partisan divides on some issues while showing bipartisan consensus on others. Republicans and Democrats both strongly supported water infrastructure investments and property tax relief, but split significantly on social issues.

The Legislature’s school choice initiative, creating educational savings accounts, garnered 53% support overall, with 67% of Republicans backing the program compared to 42% of Democrats. Gov. Greg Abbott had made school choice a top priority after previous failures to pass such legislation.

More controversial measures received mixed reception. A requirement for public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, already signed into law by Abbott, had 44% support and 43% opposition. The measure was backed by 68% of Republicans but opposed by 67% of Democrats.

Prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion programs in K-12 schools proved deeply polarizing, with 78% of Republicans supporting such bans while 80% of Democrats opposed them.

The poll also found divisions among Republicans on cannabis policy. When asked about outlawing hemp-derived cannabis products, only 31% of all voters supported a ban while 53% opposed it. 

“Among Republicans, 46% supported the ban, 39% opposed it, but 15% said they didn’t know. So, Republicans are very divided on this,” Henson said in an interview with KXAN’s Will DuPree.

Henson noted that the divisions reflect broader changes in Republican attitudes. “If you look at some of the other data on marijuana, on particularly medical marijuana, we do know that over the last decade or two, Republicans have become more divided with more Republicans being more open to decriminalization or you know various kinds of low-level recreational use and we’re seeing that at play here.”

The poll found traditionally low public attention to the legislative session, with only 7% of voters following it “extremely closely” and 40% following “somewhat closely.” More than half said they were not following the session very closely or at all.

The results suggest that while voters may not approve of the Legislature’s overall performance, many of the specific policies enacted during the session — particularly those focused on infrastructure, education funding and property tax relief — align with public preferences across party lines.