Abbott and Patrick Get Low Marks in UT Poll
as More Voters Disapprove of Redistricting
Capitol Inside
September 10, 2025
The Lone Star State's top two leaders fared poorly in a new University of Texas poll that found minimal support for the Republicans' congressional redistricting effort that consumed back-to-back special sessions and relegated others issue to back-burner status throughout much of the summer.
The Texas Politics Project survey in August found that 50 percent of the voters disapproved of the job that Governor Greg Abbott has been doing compared to only 40 percent who viewed his work in a positive light. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick performed even worse than Abbott in the poll that was made public on Tuesday - with a 44 percent disapproval mark compared to 30 percent who approved.
More than one-third of the GOP voters in Texas do not approve of the congressional redistricting effort based on the UT poll findings. The poll found that 41 percent of the voters disapproved of the U.S. House redistricting push here in 2025 compared to only 34 percent who gave it a thumbs up.
Sixty-five percent of the Republican voters in the Texas Politics Project poll favored the redrawing of the state's congressional voting districts in special session this year. But only 13 percent of the independents and a mere 7 percent of Democratic voters in the sample expressed approval for the second mid-decade redistricting effort in the history of the Lone Star State.
The UT poll indicated that GOP leaders and lawmakers in Austin weren't on the same page with the electorate when it comes to the issues that they designated as the paramount priorities for the summer of 2025.
Redistricting was the ruling Republicans' only real priority throughout a first special session that Abbott called initially for the sake of regulating a THC industry that almost all of the GOP legislators here voted in regular session to shutter with a prohibition on the sale of cannabis products made from hemp.
Abbott and the Republicans in Austin struck out in three swings at THC in the regular session, the first special session and a third special gathering that ended last week in a stalemate on a regulatory plan for an industry that's thrived with little government oversight since lawmakers legalized hemp in 2019.
But the Republicans' failure to agree on a compromise for cannabis may be no big deal in the eyes of the voters based on the UT survey's findings on the issue. Only 32 percent of the participants in the poll said the regulation of THC sales was important compared to 33 percent who did not see it that way. Patrick rated a prohibition on the sale of THC products as his highest priority during the regular session - and he refused in special session to compromise when Abbott and Speaker Dustin Burrows thought they had a deal on regulations.
The governor and GOP lawmakers in Austin indicated that disaster preparedness and relief would be their paramount priority after a historically deadly flood in the Hill Country on July 4th. But legislation that stemmed from the flooding took a backseat to redistricting until the Republicans passed a new congressional map in the second special session last month.
Eighty-two percent of the voters in the UT poll indicated that issues stemming from the flood were critical for legislators to address. Fifty-five percent said flood-related issues were extremely important.
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