As Texans gear up for primary voting kicking off this week, the heat is on issues of border control, immigration, and related policies in the Texas State. A recent University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll has revealed that 59% of Texans are in favor of tightening the screws on migrants seeking asylum, fleeing from violence in their own countries.
The poll, digging into voter sentiments, found a clear partisan divide with 71% of Republicans and 48% of Democrats backing harder asylum policies; this comes on the heels of Gov. Greg Abbott's announcement of a new 80-acre base for the Texas Military Department near the border, a move underscoring the heightened focus on border security among Texan voters, according to KVUE.
Where the term 'crisis' is concerned, close to half the voters polled, some 48%, slapped that label on the border situation, with the number leaping to 74% among Republicans versus just 20% for Democrats, indicating a significant partisan gap on the perception of border urgencies, as reported by the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project.
In terms of policy leanings a robust 91% of GOP voters emphatically support the construction or repair of barriers along the Texan stretch of the US-Mexico border and a strong 90% are rallying behind the surge of state police and military resource deployment, with contentious policies like obstructing Border Patrol access to certain border segments earning 59% support amongst Republicans even though this denotes the lowest rung of support among the policies tested; the attitudes of Texans on these policies showcase a worrying trend of deep divide with an unwavering Republican consensus starkly juxtaposed against increasingly divided – and concerned – Democrats, according to the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project.
On the front of electoral races, Ted Cruz is surfing on a 73% favorability amongst polled Republicans, while Democrat Colin Allred is the front-runner with 52% of Democratic voters throwing their support behind him. When shifting the lens to issues like abortion and gun rights, 45% of Texas voters believe abortion laws should be less strict, and a commanding 73% support raising the legal age for gun purchases to 21, revealing nuanced voter stances on these fiery topics, KVUE reports.
