Texas Voters Split on Police Violence Protests, Open to Moving Confederate Statues, Poll Finds

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Texas registered voters’ opinions are split on the protests that followed Floyd’s death: 43% approve and 44% disapprove. Most voters younger than 29 (68%) approve of the protests, a view shared by 50% of voters between 30 and 44, 46% of the 45-64 set and 31% of voters aged 65 and older. While 46% of women have favorable opinions of those protests, 38% of men do. Only 38% of white voters approve, while 69% of Black voters. Hispanic voters split, with 40% holding favorable opinions and 40% holding unfavorable ones.

Most Black voters (51%) say they have been treated unfairly by police because of their race or ethnicity, an experience shared by 29% of Hispanic voters in the survey, 18% of Asian voters and 11% of white voters.

The police are viewed favorably by 55% of Texas voters, unfavorably by 30%. The favorable sentiment reached a high point in previous UT polls in February 2017, at 64%. The unfavorable opinions have risen from a low of 18% in that same February 2017 survey.

The deaths of Black people in encounters with police, according to 49% of Texas voters are “a sign of broader problems in the treatment of African Americans by police,” while 43% say those are “isolated incidents.” Among Black voters, 82% say it’s a sign of broader problems; 56% of Asian voters, 47% of Hispanic voters and 43% of white voters agree. Half of white voters say those were isolated incidents.

{snip} In the current survey, 42% have favorable views of Black Lives Matter, while 43% have unfavorable opinions of it; in October 2016, the split was a much more negative 28-54.

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In October 2017, more than half of Texas voters thought Confederate statues and monuments should remain where they are — 34% just as they are and another 22% with “historical context provided.” Public opinion has flipped, with most believing they should either be removed from public view (20%) or “moved to a museum or other site where they can be presented in historical context (32%). A slight majority of white voters (53%) would leave the monuments in place, while majorities of Black voters (82%) and Hispanic voters (54%) would move them.

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