The Texas Standard recently marked the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term in office by examining the impact of his policies on both Texas and California.
But others are asking folks how they feel about the state of things, as well. The Texas Lyceum conducts an annual poll asking people across the Lone Star State about how they’re feeling about top issues.
Joshua Blank, the Research Director for the Texas Lyceum, said their survey includes 1,200 Texas adults and was in the field from March 28 to April 4.
“I think that’s really important to highlight here. This isn’t registered voters. This isn’t likely voters. It isn’t primary voters,” he said. “This annual poll in particular captures the attitudes of the diverse range of opinion and, really, the diversity that is Texas.”
One main focus of the poll this year was Texans’ perceptions of Donald Trump and the changes his administration has made over the last few months.
“Donald Trump is doing relatively well in Texas. His job approval, we saw 54% approval, only 46% disapproval… That’s pretty good,” Blank said.
“He’s a little bit higher on the issue of immigration and border security, which remains a perennial issue here in Texas. And I think that’s an important part to sort of understand here, which is that, you know, when we ask Texans what’s the most important problem facing the state, they consistently tell us that it’s immigration and the border.”
The poll also focused on how people feel about both the national and state economy.
“The plurality of Texans, 47%, still say the national economy is doing worse than last year. Now this is much, much better than in 2024, when 60% said the same,” Blank said. “However, a lot of that is going to be due to partisanship. If you follow this stuff closely, views of the national economy often get viewed through partisan lenses.”
Perceptions of the Texas economy haven’t changed as much as views on the national economy, Blank said. About 30% of Texans say the state economy is better than last year, which is similar to last year’s numbers. On the flip side, 35% of Texans say the state economy is doing worse than last year, which is a bit lower than the 42% that said the same last year.
“We know from lots of polling that the economy is really front and center for a lot of people,” Blank said.
Blank said the poll also found that the identity of “Texan” is strong across demographics.
“Despite decades of demographic change of movement across the state, of people coming to Texas from other states, and we asked people, do you agree or disagree with the following statement ‘I consider myself to be a Texan.’ 82% of adults agreed with that statement,” he said. “That included 83% of Anglo Texans, 80% of Hispanic Texans, 82% of African-American Texans. So this was widespread.”
The Texas Lyceum also wanted to know how Texans feel about, and whether they use, artificial intelligence. Blank said 39% of Texans have a positive view of AI, while 30% have a negative view. Only 8% of Texans use generative AI like ChatGPT “very often,” while 25% said they never do.
“The real gap here is not by race or by gender, it’s by education and it’s by income,” Blank said. “Adoption is not uniform, acceptance is not uniform… (Education) increases the likelihood that you’re going to have a positive view of AI. It’s going to increase the likelihood that you have more knowledge about AI.”
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The 2025 Lyceum poll also asked about Texans’ views towards civility and the way that people are approaching politics. Blank said 42% of Texas adults blame elected officials for the divisions in this country.
“Interestingly enough though, most Texans don’t think this is the only way. 69% think it’s possible for people to disagree respectfully about politics, where only 20% believe that these nasty exchanges are unavoidable,” he said.
“Not only that, 68% said they would rather have political leaders who compromise and find middle ground on key issues, as opposed to the 32% who would prefer elected officials who stand their ground and fight hard, basically to try to achieve something.”
These numbers held true across party lines with only minor differences, Blank said.
“I think this highlights the fact that there’s a big fat middle in America that’s probably not being spoken to through sort of the high-octane rhetoric and the fighting words that seem to be becoming a much more common feature of partisan politics,” he said.
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