(DALLAS, Texas, Dec. 7, 2021) — As Republican activists and elected officials increasingly call for a special legislative session to prohibit vaccine mandates, recent polling shows that Republicans who vote in primaries are far more skeptical of such mandates and other measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 than Texas voters as a whole are.

Overall, Texas registered voters are split relatively evenly over the questions of whether vaccine mandates, mask mandates or vaccine passports would help society get back to normal, according to October polling conducted by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation (TxHPF). However, Republicans who are almost certain to vote in their party’s primaries voiced strong disagreement with the idea that these measures would help society get back to normal sooner. Specifically:

• A plurality of Texans (49%) agree that vaccine mandates will help society get back to normal sooner, while 42% disagree and 9% neither agree nor disagree. However, 75% of voters who are almost certain to vote in Republican primaries disagree that vaccine mandates will help society get back to normal sooner.
• A narrow absolute majority of Texans (51%) agree that mask mandates will help society get back to normal sooner, while 38% disagree and the remaining 11% neither agree nor disagree. Among voters who are almost certain to vote in Republican primaries, 75% disagree that mask mandates will help society get back to normal sooner.
• A plurality of Texans (45%) disagree that vaccine passports will help society get back to normal sooner. Just over two-fifths (42%) agree and 13% neither agree nor disagree. However, 81% of almost-certain Republican primary voters disagree.

Voters who are inclined to support Republicans in November general elections but less likely to vote in primaries are less opposed to vaccine mandates, vaccine passports and mask mandates than those who are more likely to vote in primaries.

“There is a clear divide between Republican primary voters and the rest of the state, but Republican primary voters are the most influential group in Texas politics by far,” said Jason Villalba, Chairman and CEO of the TxHPF. “If Governor Abbott calls a special session on vaccine mandates and some of these other issues, it will show the overwhelming influence of the relatively few Texans who vote in Republican primaries.

Many elected Republicans are calling for a special session because they know how strongly their primary voters feel about these issues.”

Voters who indicate they are almost certain to vote in Democratic primaries are highly likely to believe that vaccine mandates, vaccine passports and mask mandates will help society get back to normal.

“Sharp partisan differences exist in regard to agreement and disagreement with these policies meant to limit the spread of COVID-19,” said TxHPF Director of Research and Analytics Mark P. Jones of Rice University. “There is even disagreement within parties. Voters who are most active in their party primaries show the strongest feelings about whether certain COVID policies will work.”

The October polling from the TxHPF also found that 25% of registered voters identifying as Republicans and 24% identifying as independents said they did not plan to get vaccinated, compared to just 6% of Democrats. Overall, 18% of respondents said they do not plan to get vaccinated.

For the survey, 1,402 respondents were interviewed online between October 14 and 27, with a margin of error of +/- 2.6%. (The survey contained an oversample of Hispanic registered voters, with a total of 616 Texas Hispanics surveyed).

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About the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation
The Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation operates as a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, dedicated and committed to analyzing and exploring the political, economic, social, demographic, and familial attitudes and behaviors of Texas Hispanics. The Foundation conducts surveys, polls, research, data collection and analysis concerning the Hispanic population in Texas. You can find more information about the Foundation at www.TxHPF.org.

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