New polling data said more than half of Texans polled approve of Gov. Greg Abbott's job performance. President Donald Trump's performance? Not so much.
The Texas 2018 Lyceum poll of 1,178 Texans shows support for Trump waning, with 52 percent of adult Texans disapproving of how the president does his job.
Political experts said some of that may be related to the president’s economic policies, which have led to increased tariffs on agricultural products and criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“The partisan structure of that is sort of overwhelming,” said Josh Blank, a pollster with the Texas Lyceum group. “So among Democratic identifiers, 85 percent say he’s doing a poor job. Among Republicans, 85 percent say he’s doing a good or great job.”
But Blank said when it comes to Abbott, the poll shows 52 percent of Texans surveyed approve of the governor's performance.
Brandon Rottinghaus, political science professor at the University of Houston, said Abbott benefited from chartering a political course independent of the president.
“Abbott has been a quiet supporter of Donald Trump and so as a result, Republicans tend to view him as someone who is separate from Trump and in some degree separate from the party, so his approval ratings are much better than many others,” Rottinghaus said.
Rottinghaus said this is a good political position for Abbott as he prepares to face Democratic rival Lupe Valdez in the midterm elections in November.
Ryan Poppe can be reached at rpoppe@tpr.org or on Twitter @RyanPoppe1
