A September poll from UTSA’s Center for Public Opinion Research (CPOR) found that a slight majority of San Antonio voters opposed giving City Council members raises, and around 40% of all people polled were against new downtown sports venues for the San Antonio Spurs and the San Antonio Missions.
The poll also found that more than 80% of all San Antonio voters had never even heard of the city’s six charter amendments that will be on the November ballot.
Support for a new Missions ballpark was split 40% for and 35% against. About 36% supported the potential new Spurs arena while 41% were against it.
The Missions ballpark has been mired in a debate over a plan to displace more than 300 residents of the Soap Factory Apartments to make room for the ballpark and the redevelopment around it. The San Antonio City Council approved a framework for that plan earlier this month.
Details about a new Spurs arena downtown have been mostly kept private, other than that its location would likely be where the Institute of Texan Cultures currently stands in Hemisfair Park.
San Antonio city charter amendments polling
San Antonio voters will decide on these six charter amendments in November: council and mayoral salaries, the city manager’s tenure and salary caps, council and mayoral term lengths, city employee political activity, ethics revisions, and language updates.
Voters UTSA polled were most strongly in opposition to the charter amendment that would remove the tenure and salary caps on the city manager; many of the same voters who will decide the issue in two months voted to place those caps on the city manager in 2018.
About 69% opposed the charter amendment, with only 17% in support.
It’s an item many on the council, including Mayor Ron Nirenberg, have expressed strong support for since the San Antonio Charter Review Commission brought the recommendation to them. They have said it would return the power of hiring and firing the city manager to the city council. If voters reject the proposal, City Manager Erik Walsh will term out of the position in 2027.
Voters are evenly split on extending council and mayoral terms from two to four years, with 43% in favor and 44% opposed. The charter amendment would retain the maximum eight years any member of the council can serve.
For city employee political activity, an issue successfully pushed to the ballot by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, 45% support the amendment and 36% oppose it.
The 72-year-old charter provision the amendment would overturn prevents municipal employees from block-walking, working on campaigns, or donating money even when they’re not at work or in uniform.
Support for the ethics revisions and language updates to the city charter both polled high between 55% and 65%.
2025 San Antonio mayoral race polling
The 2025 San Antonio mayoral race is still anyone’s to win after UTSA’s poll found that nearly 70% of San Antonio voters either were not familiar with the candidates or did not know who they would support.
District 9 Councilmember John Courage fared the best in the poll with nearly 10% support, and the rest of the field of candidates hovered between 3% and 5%.
2024 federal elections polling
At the federal level, the poll found a surge in support in Bexar County for Vice President Kamala Harris to 53% compared to its June poll, when President Joe Biden was still in the race, where he only had 40% support in the county. Donald Trump’s support in Bexar County has remained in the mid-30s across both polls.
For the U.S. Senate race in Texas between Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic nominee Colin Allred, the poll found that Allred’s support jumped 12 points compared to UTSA’s June poll to 44%. Cruz’s support fell slightly to 29%. One in five Bexar County voters said they did not know who they would vote for in the race.
The Bexar County poll sample focused on likely voters and was more highly educated and more non-Latino white than the county at large. Six hundred and ninety two registered voters responded to the poll, which had a margin of error of 3.7%.
The CPOR will conduct another poll in October and will release those results in early November before Election Day.
