James Henson

Dr. Henson directs the Texas Politics Project, a collection of enterprises designed to encourage informed interest and engagement in Texas politics and government, and is a lecturer in the Department of Government. In that role, he co-directs, with Daron Shaw and Joshua Blank, the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll, the only open-access, public, statewide survey of public opinion in Texas. The data sets from those surveys are available in the polling section of the Texas Politics website. He also writes about politics for The Texas Tribune, and is a frequent resource for news media and researchers on Texas politics and government. He is the principal author of a widely used web text on Texas politics and government, Texas Politics, published by Soomo Learning.

Henson was appointed to the City of Austin Ethics Review Commission in 2009 by the Austin City Council, and served as chairman of the commission from 2010 to 2012. He is currently a member of the advisory board of The Subiendo Academy in the McCombs School of Business at UT-Austin. He is also a partner at Strategic Research Associates, a political research and polling firm based in Austin.