From the Texas Tribune: Texas voters and political candidates aren’t on the same page

There seems to be consistency in the issues partisans in Texas focus on.

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New polling from the University of Texas at Austin finds the state’s voters in familiar frames of mind, with Republicans fretting about border security and immigration, Democrats about COVID-19 and political leadership/corruption and the two major parties’ voters in complete disagreement about Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

At least the voters are consistent.

Texans have opinions about the people on the ballot and the hot-button issues. It’s just that many of the topics those candidates want to talk about are not what voters say is most important.

Democratic candidates pushing last year’s failure of the electric grid in Texas have some work to do: Only 5% of Democratic voters listed that as the most important problem facing the state. Overall, 3% of all voters put that at the top of their lists. Political corruption/leadership (18%) and COVID-19 (16%) were Democratic voters’ first two choices.

But the big issues for Republican candidates at the top of the statewide ballot — immigration and border security — still resonate with Texans, with a combined total of 31% of all voters. That includes 58% of Republican voters, the group the GOP’s candidates are courting right now.

Voters do have opinions about the things the candidates are talking about, even if those aren’t making the “most important issues” lists.