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A new poll shows half of Texas voters — and a slight plurality of Republicans — believe the state House’s impeachment of now-suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton was justified.
Released Tuesday, the survey from the University of Texas at Austin found that 50% of voters considered the impeachment justified and 17% did not. One-third said they did not know or had no opinion.
Among Paxton’s fellow Republicans, 31% said the impeachment was justified and 30% said it was not. Thirty-nine percent said they did not know or had no opinion.
Last month, Paxton faced impeachment by the House due to allegations of a prolonged history of misconduct and violation of laws. The impeachment vote resulted in a count of 121-23, with nearly an equal number of Republicans and Democrats backing the decision.
Following the vote, Paxton was temporarily suspended from his position, and now the Senate is making preparations for conducting a trial to determine whether he should be permanently removed from office.
According to the poll conducted between June 2-12, Paxton’s approval rating has hit a record low. Only 30% of voters approved of his job performance, while 41% expressed disapproval. In contrast, the figures in April were 39% approval and 35% disapproval.
The latest poll also found that a clear majority of Texas voters have heard about Paxton’s impeachment to some degree. Thirty percent said they have heard about it “a lot,” 42% said they have heard about it “some” and the rest said they had heard about it “not very much” or not at all.
The poll included 1,200 registered voters who were interviewed using an online survey panel. The margin of error was plus-or-minus 2.83 percentage points.
Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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