The Cost of Living Crisis & The State Legislative Agenda in Texas

Digging into TPOR's latest data on the issue Texans care about the most, and legislative priorities in Austin

Hey y’all, welcome back! In today’s TPOR installment, we’re diving into the latest findings from our poll on 2025 state legislative issues in Texas and the 2026 Senate race. This time, we’re diving into which issues Texas voters most want state elected officials to focus on right now, with particular attention paid to their number one priority: affordability.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Affordability and cost of living is the top issue: More than a third of voters say this is the most important issue for Texas elected officials to focus on right now, with Democrats and independents selecting it in slightly higher shares than Republicans.

• The majority of Texas voters do not think state legislators or Governor Abbott are doing enough to lower costs.

• When it comes to the state legislative agenda, Texas voters rank matters related to costs, finances, and privacy as most important.

Issue Importance: Affordability and Cost of Living

Affordability and cost of living is the most important issue for Texas voters by a significant margin. Asked which two issues they believe are most important for elected officials in Texas to focus on right now, more than a third (37%) say affordability and cost of living. The other top issues are education and public schools (28%), immigration and border security (24%), and Social Security and Medicare (21%). Public safety (5%), climate change (4%), and cultural issues (2%) rank the lowest.

The prioritization of affordability and cost of living differs by party affiliation: it is the most frequently selected issue among Democrats (40%) and independents (37%), while Republicans (36%) identify it as second to immigration and border security (46%). The second-most frequently selected issue for both Democrats (35%) and independents (28%) is education and public schools.

Black (52%), Latino/a (38%), and white (34%) voters all see affordability and cost of living as the most important issue for Texas elected officials to focus on, as do voters across all Texas regions (34% in South Texas, 36% in Houston, 39% in Dallas, and 43% in Central/East Texas). The same is true of non-college voters (40%) and voters under 50 (44%). Among college-educated voters, affordability and cost of living (33%) is second to education and public schools (36%); among voters over 50, it’s roughly tied with Social Security and Medicare (29% to 30%).

Women (43%) are significantly more concerned about affordability and cost of living than men (31%), though it is the most frequently selected issue among both.

Voter Opinion: Elected Officials’ Performance on Lowering Costs

An overwhelming majority of Texas voters (72%, including 84% of Democrats, 72% of independents, and 58% of Republicans) don’t believe their state legislator is doing enough to lower costs, while just 11% say that their state legislator is doing enough. Similarly, most Texas voters (60%, including 84% of Democrats and 79% of independents) say Governor Abbott isn’t doing enough to lower costs, while 21% believe that Abbott is doing enough. Notably, only 40% of Republicans say Abbott is doing enough, while 35% say he’s not.

State Legislative Agenda: Issue Prioritization

Texas voters were also asked to rate state legislative matters being addressed during the 2025 session on a scale of 0-10, where 10 is the most important an issue could be and 0 is the least.

Reflecting voters’ desire to see Texas elected officials focus on affordability and cost of living, the top-ranking issues are lowering the cost of healthcare and prescription drug costs (8.7 mean), protecting the privacy of people's data in Social Security and other government records (8.3), expanding career training, vocational education, and job training programs for high school students and young adults (8.1), making housing more affordable (8.1), and lowering property taxes (7.9).

Notably, culture war topics like requiring the Ten Commandments in classrooms (4.0) and banning DEI from publicly funded institutions in Texas (4.8) rank much lower, as do school-voucher-related issues (4.2)(3.8), banning THC (3.1), and establishing a Texas Bitcoin reserve (2.7).

Both Democrats and independents rate lowering the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs highest, at 9.1. Among Democrats, this legislative issue is tied with protecting data privacy in Social Security and other government records and raising salaries for public school teachers, followed by avoiding cuts to Medicaid (8.6) and making housing more affordable (8.4).

For Republicans, the most important legislative matter is dealing with immigration and the border (9.0), followed by lowering property taxes (8.7), with lowering the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs (8.2), establishing a program to cut waste in Texas government (8.3), and establishing a program to improve government efficiency in Texas (8.1) roughly tied for third.

Independents’ priorities more closely align with Democrats’, with expanding career training, vocational education, and job training programs for high school students and young adults (8.8) and protecting data privacy in Social Security and other government records (8.7) roughly tied for second after lowering the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs. These are followed by raising salaries for public school teachers (8.4) and making housing more affordable (8.3).

The intensity of voters’ prioritization of legislative issues (as measured by the share who rated them at 10, or “most important”) is closely aligned with the mean rankings, particularly on the top-ranking ones: 60% of voters rated lowering the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs at 10, as did 53% for protecting the privacy of people's data in Social Security and other government records.

Other matters that high shares of voters identified as most important are raising salaries for public school teachers (47%), lowering property taxes (45%), making housing more affordable (44%), avoiding cuts to Medicaid (42%), dealing with immigration and the border (40%), and expanding career training, vocational education, and job training programs (39%).

Thanks for reading today’s post! Stay tuned for more polling and analysis from TPOR, and if you found this post useful, please share with friends and family, and most importantly, subscribe for free!