Experts in the News

South Texas Democrats — overwhelmingly Hispanic — have always been more conservative than Hispanics elsewhere, said fellow Mark Jones. His polling shows Hispanic Texans who are male, evangelical or have two white grandparents gravitate toward GOP fastest. Read more at The Economist.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the First Amendment protected a Washington state football coach’s right to offer a post-game prayer on the 50-yard line. The ruling could complicate ongoing curriculum wars in Texas and other conservative states, said fellow Mark Jones, and prompt a "push for a greater space for religion in schools."

Polling shows "a majority of Texans" do not support a near total abortion ban, fellow Mark Jones told the Dallas Morning News. "All the polling has dealt with this as more of a hypothetical. Now it is real ... I think Abbott realizes they’ve overshot it.”

On April 29, the Carter Center and the .Baker Institute gathered experts to consider ways secure, accessible electoral processes can help restore voter confidence in U.S. elections. Baker Institute fellows John Williams and Mark Jones participated.

 

Focusing on immigration "ties Beto O’Rourke to unpopular Biden policies,” but Gov. Greg Abbott  "did not anticipate border security being used against him as a source of inflation," said political science fellow Mark P. Jones.