Statesman Power Poll: Trump tops any Democrat in inaugural survey

Maribel Molina / mmolina@statesman.com

Whom are Central Texas’ civic, business and community leaders supporting for president? We wanted to know, and the answer may surprise those who stereotype Austin-area politics as decidedly liberal.

The results come from the inaugural Statesman Power Poll, a new American-Statesman email survey of 900-plus Central Texas leaders in government, business, education, nonprofits, religion, the arts and more. Each month, the Statesman Power Poll will survey these decision makers about local, state and national issues.

For our first poll, 236 influencers from Austin and surrounding counties responded.

With early voting underway in Texas, the first question we asked Power Poll members was: "For whom will you vote in the March presidential primary?"

Since this question included nearly a dozen options, no one candidate achieved a plurality. The highest percentage of voters, 23.31%, selected “undecided.”

President Donald Trump was the top individual vote-getter, receiving 19.49% of Power Poll members’ votes. The highest-polling Democrat was Mike Bloomberg with 17.8%, followed by Elizabeth Warren at 10.17%, Amy Klobuchar at 8.9%, Pete Buttigieg at 7.2%, Bernie Sanders at 6.78% and Joe Biden at 4.66%.

Only one candidate did not receive any votes in our poll: Tom Steyer. Less than 2% of members said they would vote for some other Democrat or Republican not listed among the choices we gave.

In a February poll conducted by the University of Texas and Texas Tribune, Sanders led his fellow Democratic candidates. However, Trump beat out all Democrats in the race, according to the survey.

Our second Power Poll question focused on homelessness in Austin: Late last year, Gov. Greg Abbott directed state agencies to clear out homeless encampments from highway underpasses and other areas. We asked Power Poll member whether they supported the governor’s actions.

The majority of respondents, 54.66%, said they were in support of Abbott’s orders. About a third, 36.44%, said they were opposed to the governor’s orders, and another 8.9% said they were undecided.

Our third question polled members about the legality of marijuana use. The majority of survey participants, 67.37%, said they believed marijuana use should be legalized for both recreational and medical use.

The legalization of marijuana only for medical use was supported by 30.08% of Power Poll members, while only 2.54% believed the use of marijuana should be illegal in all circumstances.

The final question we asked Power Poll members regarded Trump’s recently completed impeachment proceedings.

The majority of survey takers, 62.71%, said they would have voted guilty on both charges, while 28.39% said they’d vote not guilty on both charges.

Only 8.9% of members said they’d vote not guilty of one charge and guilty of the other. During the Senate trial, only Mitt Romney of Utah voted to convict Trump on only one charge and not the other.

Each month, we will send email surveys to hundreds of Austin-area government, business and community leaders, asking about the top issues of the day. We’ll report the results here in the Statesman and at www.powerpoll.com/austin, where you can also see who’s on our panel.

Introducing Statesman Power Poll