Texas Voters Back Border Mission
and Migrant Busing in Spectrum Poll

Capitol Inside
September 21, 2022

Governor Greg Abbott continued to hold Democrat Beto O'Rourke at bay in a new poll on Wednesday that included votes of confidence for the border mission Operation Lone Star and a controversial migrant busing plan as an offshoot.

The poll that was conducted by Siena College for Spectrum News last week found Abbott leading O'Rourke by 7 points - a mark that is 1 point above the incumbent's average in eight Texas voter polls during the summer.

The Spectrum News/Siena College survey found Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Attorney Ken Paxton up on Democratic challengers Mike Collier and Rochelle Garza by 9 points and 5 points respectively. The findings are in line with the polling trends in Texas in recent months - a sign that the the lion's share of voters here are all but immovable beyond the unlikely event of circumstances that are unforeseen.

O'Rourke appeared to get a bump in June and early July with assists from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion and the state's failed response to a mass school shooting in Uvalde in May. After cutting Abbott's advantage from double digits to a low of 5 points in a pair of summer polls, the Democrat's momentum appears to have fizzled with Abbott on top by at least 7 points in four of the last five surveys that were conducted here since August 1.

GOP leaders and lawmakers remained in the minority of public opinion on abortion in the Spectrum/Siena poll -- with 55 percent opposed to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June. Thirty-five percent of 651 Texas voters in the poll backed the high court ruling on abortion.

Sixty-three percent - almost two-thirds of the voters in Spectrum/Siena survey - said they favor teaching in public schools on the history of racial and ethnic discrimination in America. Only 30 percent opposed this proposal, which is a spin off of a ban that Abbott and his allies at the Texas Capitol approved twice in 2021.

The poll found that 62 percent of the Texas voters in the sample wanted to keep the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage intact. Fifty-nine percent say they believe that Democratic President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election while 32 percent said they think Trump won.

Abbott got a thumbs up for Operation Lone Star from 58 percent of the voters in the Spectrum poll while 52 percent supported the busing of migrants to destinations outside of Texas.