More Texas voters approve of Biden’s handling of COVID-19 than Trump: poll

More Texas voters said they approve of President Joe Biden’s handling of COVID-19 than the responses of former President Donald Trump or current Governor Greg Abbott.

A new University of Texas /Texas Tribune A survey of 1,200 registered voters revealed that 49% said they approved the work Biden is doing to respond to COVID-19, with 36% responding that they disapprove.

Texas voters less approved of Trump’s pandemic actions at the White House, with 45% saying they supported his response and 48% saying no. Worse, 43% of Texans interviewed in October expressed strong disapproval of the work Trump was doing to contain the coronavirus.

Biden is also doing slightly better than Abbott, who in April received good marks from a 56% majority of Texas voters.

“[Biden]is starting, in a republican state, with very respectable numbers, “said Daron Shaw, professor of government at UT-Austin and co-head of the research, in comments to the Tribune published Friday.

Forty-five percent of Texas voters in the poll said Trump “took steps as president to justify preventing him from holding a future elected office”, while 48% said not. However, these figures do encompass a massive party division in which 84% of Democrats who identify themselves as self-styled said that Trump should not be allowed to mount a 2024 campaign against 81% of Republicans who said he should run again.

In comparison to their Republican counterparts, Texas voters gave Biden a little more approval for the pandemic. But in terms of overall job performance, just a month in office, voters were a little more critical. Forty-five percent of Texas voters they spoke with until February 18 said they approve of Biden’s job as president, compared with 44 percent who disapprove. Abbott received a slightly higher overall approval rating, 46 percent.

Despite the wide divisions between Republicans and Democrats in the poll numbers, a solid majority agreed on one thing: Congress is doing very poorly. Fifty-seven percent of Texas voters said they disapprove of the work that Congress is generally doing in Washington, with 43% expressing strong disapproval.

GOP Texas Senator John Cornyn received approval for the job from less than a third of respondents, with 42% of respondents saying they disapprove of the job he is doing in the job. A quarter said they are neutral or “have no opinion”.

The other Republican senator Ted Cruz had a much higher approval rating of 45%, but his recent controversial visit to Cancún, Mexico, “was not evident in voter ratings,” according to the polls.

Winter freezing conditions were still affecting the state during the February 12-18 election timeline.

Newsweek contacted researchers at the University of Texas-Austin, as well as the White House, for additional context and reaction on Saturday afternoon.