A poll of likely Republican primary voters conducted at the end of July shows overwhelming support for Gov. Greg Abbott and his decision to install buoys on the Rio Grande River.
The poll, conducted by CWS Research, asked a “demographically proportionate sample of likely 2024 Texas Republican primary voters” about the recent lawsuit from the federal government and whether Abbott should remove the barriers.
Just 9% of respondents said Abbott should remove the barriers, while 22% said he should elect to keep them in the water.
Surprisingly, 69% of respondents believe Abbott should consider adding additional barriers to the water.
When asked about a situation where a federal judge would order Abbott to remove the barriers, 71% of respondents said he should choose not to comply and keep the barriers up.
Just 17% said Abbott should comply with the order and remove the barriers, while 11% said they were unsure.
Abbott announced on July 14 that “The Texas Department of Public Safety [DPS] is overseeing the installation of new marine barriers,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The buoys are meant to mitigate the crisis of unlawful migrants crossing the border via the river.
“Because Texas has done such a prolific job of stopping people from coming into our state, you are seeing a massive increase in the number of people crossing into New Mexico, Arizona, and California,” said Abbott in an email statement to The Dallas Express.
On July 24, the Department of Justice announced that it was filing a civil lawsuit against the State of Texas in an attempt to have the buoys removed.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said the state allegedly “flouted federal law by installing a barrier in the Rio Grande without obtaining the required federal authorization,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“This floating barrier poses threats to navigation and public safety and presents humanitarian concerns. Additionally, the presence of the floating barrier has prompted diplomatic protests by Mexico and risks damaging U.S. foreign policy,” added Gupta.
The CWS poll asked respondents about other important topics as well, such as who they would vote for if the 2024 Republican Primary were held today.
Of the candidates available to choose from, Donald Trump received the highest share of the votes at 48%, with Ron DeSantis receiving 13%. No other candidate received higher than a 5% share, but 15% of respondents said they were undecided.
These results are similar to some national polls that have Trump and DeSantis as the two clear leaders for the Republican Primary.
As of August 10, FiveThirtyEight says Trump is polling at 53.7%, while DeSantis would receive 14.3%. It also said that Vivek Ramaswamy would receive about 7.5% of the votes, while Mike Pence would likely receive 5.6%.