Rural Texans remain firmly in the Republican column heading into the Nov. 3 election, but Latino voters have moved back toward Democrats since 2024, a new University of Houston survey found.
The Hobby School of Public Affairs polled 750 rural Texans and 500 Latino Texans from Oct. 10 to 14 and released the results Friday. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.58 percentage points for the rural sample and 4.18 points for the Latino sample.
Outside the cities
Rural voters back Republican Ken Paxton over Democrat James Talarico in the U.S. Senate race 65% to 27%, with Libertarian Ted Brown at 4% and 4% unsure. In the governor's race, Gov. Greg Abbott leads Democrat Gina Hinojosa 66% to 29% among rural voters.
Two-thirds of rural respondents said they have a favorable view of President Donald Trump. Renée Cross, the school's senior executive director, said that is 21 points higher than the 46% who said so statewide.
The rural numbers were not uniform. Among rural voters ages 18 to 34, Hinojosa led Abbott 50% to 36%. Rural independents split almost evenly in the Senate race, 48% for Talarico and 44% for Paxton, and favored Hinojosa 48% to 41%.
"Rural Texas remains a key constituency for the Republican party," Cross said, adding that "rural voters aren't a monolith."
Latino voters
Statewide, Talarico leads Paxton among Latino voters 52% to 41%, and Hinojosa leads Abbott 53% to 43%. In 2024, Trump won about 55% of the state's Latino vote, according to the Hobby School.
