Follow these steps: deadliest school shooting in Texas’s historyNew polling has shown that the far right governor is the most popular choice. Greg Abbott’s unfavorability rating is higher than it’s ever been, while his lead over Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke may be shrinking.
As new findingsUniversity of Texas/Texas Politics Project show, Abbott’s favorability was at 44 percent as of June, with another 44 percent of those polled saying that they view the governor unfavorably. This is the highest the latter has ever been, according to surveys conducted by the pollster ranging back to 2012, when Abbott was Texas’s attorney general.
The survey was completed directly after21 people, including 19 kids, were killed in the Uvalde massacre, Texas.
Abbott’s job approval ratings, meanwhile, have dipped back into the negatives, the poll finds. Forty six percent of those surveyed said they don’t approve of Abbott, while 43 said they approve. While Abbott has had net positive approval ratings for much of his time as governor, voters’ disapproval of his performance has been risingOver the past year.
This could spell good news for O’Rourke, who’s running to unseat the extremist right-wing governor this fall. While the latest poll found that Abbott still has a lead over O’Rourke of 6 points among registered voters, this is smaller than the 9-point lead that Abbott had in April, according to the pollster.
The Texas Tribune reports that Texas Politics Project Director Jim Henson says that the scrutiny over Abbott’s response to the Uvalde shooting may have impacted the poll results. The poll showed that only 36% of voters approve of Abbott’s handling gun violence. 45% disapprove of Abbott’s response to the Uvalde shooting, and 38% strongly disapprove.
Texas voters also believe the state is headed in a wrong direction at 59 percent. This is the highest percentage since 2009. Only 31 percent of respondents said they believe the state is heading in the right direction. This is a significant drop from the 40 percent who responded to surveys in October, February, and April.
Texas has weak gun lawsAs Republicans have worked to increase gun accessOver the years, the state has seen a significant increase in population. The Uvalde shooter obtainedThe AR-style rifle over 1,600Just days before the shooting, legal ammunition.
Abbott has faced widespread criticismConcerning his response to Uvalde’s shooting and other shootings in the state that have occurred under his rule, he and/or his party either stall or do not act. pass laws making it easierTo access guns. Abbott was shot the day after Uvalde. said that the shooting was “horrible,” but added that “it could have been worse.”
“The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do,” Abbott said at the time, referring to the police officers who waited 77 minutesBefore confronting him, I was massacring kids and who later liedTheir lax efforts to stop him. “They showed amazing courage.”
O’Rourke Confronted Abbott at the governor’s news conference shortly after the shooting. “You are doing nothing,” O’Rourke saidAs Republican officials shouted at him, he was taken out of the room. “You are offering up nothing. You stated that this was not predictable. This was totally predictable when you choose not to do anything.”
