A Plurality of Texans Agree with Trump Impeachment

According to a new poll, 46% of Texan voters are okay with Trump getting booted out of office (pun intended).

The University of Texas conducted the poll along with The Texas Tribune. Voters were asked if they thought congressional impeachment investigations of President Trump were justified, with 46% saying yes and 42% saying no. The naysayers are strong in number, but in the famously red state of Texas, this plurality leaning towards impeachment is still shocking, and a (hopefully) good sign of things to come in 2020.

Unsurprisingly, Democrats and Republicans stayed true to their parties in the vote, paralleling the House vote on the resolution for proceedings last week. Like the sole independent lawmaker in the House, independent voters are more likely to lean in favor of investigating Trump.

The poll had some follow-up questions for voters, including “based on what you know, do you think that Donald Trump has taken actions while president that justify his removal from office before the end of his term?”—to which 43% of registered Texas voters say yes and 44% say no. 79% of Democrats say early removal is justified, while the same percentage of Republicans say it’s not. Independents were divided, with 34% saying yes, 33% saying no and 24% unsure.

When it comes to decorum, Democrats are getting more respect from all sides of the political spectrum. Only 25% of voters approve of the way Republicans are handling investigations, which isn’t surprising considering the bizarre lengths to which they’ve gone to support Trump before the resolution vote on Thursday. Democrats fared better with 40% approval, while Trump himself brought in a 39% approval (to 45% disapproval) of his behavior throughout the impeachment process so far. When asked about their overall impression of Trump, about as many Texans approve (47%) as disapprove (48%).

The statistics paint a slightly muddled picture, but overall show that the historically strong Republican standing in the Lone Star State isn’t so stable after all.

Note: A previous version of this post used the term “majority” (rather than “plurality”) in its headline and body. We’ve corrected and regret the errors.