Everything is Bigger in Texas, Including Concern over Cost and Corruption
Key Takeaways
- Texans have deep concerns about President Trump and other Republican elected officials. Corruption – and what it costs them – is at the top of the list.
- One-in-10 Texans who voted for Trump in 2024 now say they regret their vote, including 34% of independent Trump voters.
- Texans want elected leaders to focus on issues that impact their lives starting with the cost of living. They’re also concerned about data centers, rising utility costs, and cuts to disaster funding.
- AG Ken Paxton is deeply underwater on issues Texans want to see prioritized – lowering cost and combatting corruption.
Texans Want Elected Officials Who Share Their Values Without Being Blindly Loyal To Trump
Texans, like Americans in the battleground overall, would rather prioritize leaders who share their values (73%) over backing people based on political party (26%). What they are most concerned about is that their elected representative would be blindly loyal to Trump, even if it’s worse for Texas (37% concerned), use federal office for personal gain (22%), or prioritize wealthy and special interests over Texans (19%).
Texans Do Not See President Trump and Republicans in Congress Prioritizing the Issues That Matter to Them
The top issues Texans want the president and Congress to focus on are inflation and the cost of living (53%, five points higher than battleground Americans overall), corruption in government (52%, five points higher than battleground Americans overall), jobs and the economy (35%), and immigration (34%, six points higher than battleground Americans overall). Meanwhile, they see President Trump and Republicans in Congress focused more on foreign conflicts than the cost of living.
- Texas is the only Navigator expanded battleground state where Americans ranked immigration as a top five issue.
- However, despite this focus on immigration, it trails issues like inflation and corruption, and there is still a 34-point gap between how much they want the president and Congress to focus on the issue of immigration, and how much they perceive President Trump and Republicans in Congress to be actually focusing on the issue.
We know Americans across the country are feeling squeezed by the economy, and when we asked Texans what are the main changes that are necessary to improve our economic system, they told us:
- Stop fraud and corruption in government.
- Higher taxes on the wealthy.
- Lower cost of living and inflation.
Texans Have Deep Concerns About President Trump and Their Elected Officials
Over half (56%) of Texans disapprove of how Donald Trump is handling his job as president, and the same share (56%) disapprove of his handling of the economy. Texans also blame Trump and Republicans in Congress for rising costs over Democrats in Congress by nine points (49% blame Trump/Republicans – 40% blame Democrats).
One-in-10 Texans who voted for Trump in 2024 now regret their vote, the highest share of the expanded battleground states where Navigator fielded (7% regret in Iowa, 6% regret in Ohio, 1% regret in Alaska).
Looking at the current elected leadership in Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is deeply underwater when it comes to connecting with Texans. From standing up to corruption or lowering costs to looking out for people like me or bringing needed change, majorities of Texans do not see these actions or values reflected in their current elected representative.
However, the only metric Texans felt AG Paxton embodied well is securing the border (51% describes official well – 39% describes not well).
Texans in Particular Are Concerned About Data Centers, Rising Utility Costs, and Cutting Funding For Disaster Relief
Some of Texans’ top concerns are about the lack of restrictions on data centers and tariffs that have raised the cost of goods. In particular, compared to Americans in Navigator’s expanded battleground, Texans are concerned about:
Cutting funding to federal disaster relief (40% rank as a serious concern, 6-points higher than Americans in the battleground overall).
Allowing big tech companies to build data centers with no restrictions (70% rank as a serious concern, eight points higher than Americans in the battleground overall).
Allowing utility companies to raise utility rates (58% rank as a serious concern, seven points higher than Americans in the battleground overall).
About the study
Impact Research conducted public opinion surveys among a sample of 600 likely 2026 general election voters in each of Alaska, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas for a total sample size of 2,400 between August 18 – 27, 2026. The survey was conducted via text-to-web interviews. Respondents were verified against a voter file and special care was taken to ensure the demographic composition of our sample matched that of each state included in the sample across a variety of demographic variables. The margin of error for the full sample at the 95 percent level of confidence is ± 2.0 percentage points. The margin of error for subgroups varies and is higher.