FORT WORTH, Texas_Texans are divided on how Republican President Donald Trump is doing in the White House.
Two years ago, Trump handily won the vote in Texas, 4.6 million votes to the 3.8 million who voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Now, likely voters in the red state of Texas are split _ 49 percent to 49 percent _ on the president's job approval rating, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday.
That's still a better approval rating than the president has across the country, said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
"The president's job approval rating nationally is about 10 percent lower than it is here," Jillson said. "Texas is more conservative, more Republican, than the country is generally.
"Texans continue to support the president, not at a rate they once did, but at a rate higher than throughout the country."
Trump's approval ratings across the country: 40.1 percent, according to an estimate from FiveThirtyEight.
Here's what the poll released Tuesday shows about Texans:
_86 percent of Republicans approve of the job Trump is doing;
_93 percent of Democrats disapprove of the job Trump is doing;
_And, 58 percent of Independent voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing.
"Polarization is alive and well in Texas as approval of the president almost perfectly matches with which party Texans identify," said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. "Independent respondents may be the deciding factor in the 2018 elections if they show up to vote."
This Quinnipiac survey was conducted Sept. 11-17, reaching 807 likely Texas voters on landlines and cellphones. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
