AUSTIN (Nexstar) — From the southern border, to the energy economy, to abortion, Texas is the center of some of the most contentious issues in the country that voters say are their most important priorities in the 2024 election.
According to polling from Emerson College and The Hill, immigration is top issue for a plurality of Texas voters at 29%. Twenty-two percent prioritize the economy, followed by 12% caring most about abortion and 10% about threats to democracy.
Texas is sure to tie in closely with many of the topics sure to make up the debate. Follow along here as we analyze the debate through the eyes of Texas.
Abortion
Trump said he believes in exceptions for rape and incest. He called them “very important” in states with abortion bans and said more than 80% of Republicans support exceptions. Texas has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, without any exceptions for rape or incest.
Harris tied state abortion ban’s to Trump’s influence on the Supreme Court. She also claimed he would sign a national abortion ban into law, which Trump has denied.
“I am not in favor of an abortion ban, but it doesn’t matter, because this issue has now been taken up by the states,” Trump said.
Immigration
Harris expressed support for the U.S. Senate’s bipartisan border security bill, which allocated about $20 billion to expand Border Patrol staffing, add immigration judges, and set limits for migrant encounters. She accused Trump of tanking the bill by expressing his aversion to senators.
“He preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem,” she said.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, did not support that bill, expressing concerns it would normalize a certain number of daily migrant encounters. His opponent, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, has expressed his support for that legislation.
Trump said he would use local police to deport more than 11 million people.
“This will be one of the greatest mistakes in history… they’ve destroyed the fabric of our country, millions of people let in,” Trump said. “We have a new form of crime, it’s called migrant crime.” Data from the Texas Department of Public Safety show undocumented immigrants are arrested for crime at a lower rate than U.S. citizens.
“US-born citizens are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes,” a 2020 study of DPS data found.
Energy
“I will not ban fracking, I have not banned fracking… in fact, I was the tie breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act which opened new leases for fracking,” Harris said.
Harris expressed support for increasing domestic oil production to reduce reliance on foreign oil.
Trump pointed to spikes in oil and gasoline prices during the Biden-Harris administration while also expressing support for solar energy. He also claimed a Harris administration would ban fracking on the first day, which Harris denied.
This coverage is ongoing and will be updated throughout the debate.