TEXAS — The University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs this week released a survey asking Texans which lawmakers would earn their vote ahead of the primary election. Here's what they had to say.

What You Need To Know

  • The University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs put out a survey asking Texans for their opinions on lawmakers ahead of the primary election

  • For the presidential election, 49% of Texans voters favored Donald Trump over Joe Biden, who was favored by 40% of voters

  • For Democratic candidates, most Texans (40%) favor Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, while 12% would cast their vote for state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio

  • If Allred is the Democratic candidate, the tide turns, with Ted Cruz leading Allred by 9 points with a 48% vote to Allred's 39%

Presidential election

The majority of those surveyed said they'd vote for Donald Trump over Nikki Haley in the 2024 Texas Republican Presidential primary. Only 19% of those surveyed said they'd vote for Haley, while 80% said they would vote for Trump. One percent said they didn't know or were unsure.

For the general election, Trump is favored by most with 49% of participants casting their vote for him. Forty percent of surveyed Texans favored President Joe Biden. Four percent of people surveyed supported third party candidates and 7% were unsure.

Male voters favored Trump over Biden (53%), but female voters were effectively tied with 44% favoring Trump and 43% favoring Biden.

Despite being only four years apart in age, the majority (72%) of voters in Texas believe Biden is too old to serve another term as president, while 40% think Trump is too old to serve another term.

Most supporters of Trump and Biden support tightening gun legislation. Eighty-eight percent of Biden voters and 64% of Trump voters support legislation to increase the age for someone to be able to purchase an AR-15-style rifle to 21.

The majority of Trump-supporting voters are in favor of Gov. Greg Abbott spending $3 billion worth of Texas taxpayer money to bulk up border security efforts (92%) and empower law enforcement to arrest undocumented migrants (93%).

U.S. Senate election

As for Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate, 40% of Texans surveyed would vote for Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, while 12% would cast their vote for state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio.

Gutierrez leads among Latino voters (41% to 25%) while Allred leads among Black (54% to 19%) and white (57% to 16%) voters. The majority of Baby Boomers and Gen-X support Allred (56% and 49%) while the majority of Gen-Z support Gutierrez (42%).

If Allred is the Democratic candidate, the tide turns, with Ted Cruz leading Allred by 9 points with a 48% vote to Allred's 39%. Four percent of the vote went to Libertarian Ted Brown and 9% were undecided.

With Gutierrez as the hypothetical Democratic candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz leads against him too with 48% of the vote compared to 38% going to Gutierrez, for a 10 point lead. Brown saw 4% of the vote and 10% were undecided.