Texas voters overwhelmingly approve of business closures, stay-at-home orders despite blow to state'

[TexasTowelie]

Texas voters overwhelmingly approve of business closures, stay-at-home orders despite blow to state's economy, says UT/TT poll

by Brandon Formby and Ross Ramsey, Texas Tribune


Texas' economy is taking a catastrophic hit — and hundreds of thousands of Texans are out of work — as officials shutter businesses and limit some establishment's operations to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. But while Texans' optimism about the state's economy has fallen, they largely support those measures, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

Two-thirds of registered Texas voters agree with decisions by Gov. Greg Abbott and several local officials to suspend nonessential business operations. And more than three-quarters of voters support orders to stay home except for essential activities. The poll's findings come as Abbott says he will soon announce plans to reopen a wide range of Texas businesses.

Some hardline Republicans have pressured Abbott, who has taken a middle-ground approach in responding to the global health crisis, to relax his statewide stay-at-home order. And Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has suggested that saving the economy was more important than responding to the coronavirus. But after first making that suggestion last month, Patrick has experienced an uptick of disapproval among two groups: registered voters over 65 and independents. The poll was conducted before Patrick went on national television this week and said “there are more important things than living" as he advocated for reopening the economy.

“To the extent that some people are saying Republicans are beating down the doors of their houses... there is no evidence of that in this poll,” said James Henson, co-director of the poll and head of the Texas Politics Project at UT-Austin. “There’s not evidence of resisting serious measures.”

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/04/26/texas-reopening-coronavirus-poll/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. It would be an interesting dichotomy if some of the public agreed with Abbott to re-open

nonessential businesses BUT a lot of them also stayed away from them due to the Virus.