Tipsheet

Stunt Fail: Poll Shows Voters Strongly Approve of Key Elements in New Texas Voting Law

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  July 28, 2021 10:35 AM

Let's begin with a reminder of where things stand.  Runaway Texas Democrats are still hunkered down in Washington, DC, shirking their legislative duties in Austin in order to deny the state house the requisite quorum to take up an elections bill.  These Democrats are whining that President Biden hasn't met with them, even though they've huddled with virtually every other high-ranking Democrat in town -- infecting several aides with COVID in the process.  Having been flown to DC on chartered jets (they famously flew maskless, in spite of their own rhetoric and standards) and are holed up in hotel rooms funded by major political donors.  Incredibly, they've requested "care packages," courtesy of Democratic grassroots donors, which is the latest way they're fundraising off of this whole stunt.  A GOP operative frames the optics of this:


They evidently didn't request beer, perhaps because they already have plenty of that.  The news media, facing a self-inflicted credibility crisis, has covered this whole saga predictably -- which is to say, like fawning Democratic press secretaries.  The ostensible objective of these derelict lawmakers is to resist debating, amending, or voting on legislation that they say poses a threat to democracy.  The rhetoric surrounding the Texas bill has been positively unhinged.  President Biden is addicted to scurrilous and insulting "Jim Crow" comparisons, Vice President Harris invoked Selma (the Texas Democrats apparently agreed, triggering this cringe fest), and on and on it goes.  This is deranged:


People listen to this type of shockingly divisive and ahistorical race baiting on a regular basis, yet continue to wonder how we've gotten to this point:


We have written previously about what is actually in the Texas legislation (passed by the Texas Senate while lower chamber members were out of town), as have others.  Suffice it to say, the ludicrously overheated rhetoric bears little relation to the content of the would-be law, which largely standardizes practices and reinstates pre-pandemic, non-emergency practices to the administration of elections in the state.  Meanwhile, Texas Democrats are demanding the passage of a federal takeover of elections, packed with partisan power grabs and poison pills.  After a similarly hyperbolic, hyperventilating battle in Georgia, public polling showed that in spite of an intense barrage of demagoguery and lies, Georgians supported the state's new law.  As the outrage cyclone has blown into Texas, Republicans can at least draw encouragement from survey results that show robust support for key provisions in the "Jim Crow, democracy-crushing" bill they've introduced.  The disconnect between Democrats' words and substantive reality is enormous:


As for the general notion of returning to pre-pandemic norms, versus making COVID voting innovations permanent, a plurality favors the former -- including most independents:

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It's little wonder that Democrats and their allies feel compelled to advance to wild claims and invoke loaded words in order to argue against legislation filled with broadly popular ideas.  I'll leave you with Texas Governor Greg Abbott reminding the opposition that simply hiding in DC until the special session expires won't work: