As voters prepare to caucus in Iowa Monday evening, pollsters in Texas are asking voters who they plan to support in the state’s March 3 Democratic primary, to what extent they support President Donald Trump and more.
Bob Garrett is Austin bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News, and says a poll conducted by his newspaper, along with the University of Texas at Tyler, found that in Texas, Trump is running ahead of all major Democratic candidates.
“But both Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg run close enough to be within the margin of error for our poll,” Garrett says.
Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, has spent at least $24 million on advertising in Texas, and trails Trump by 3 percentage points, Garrett says.
“He is opening offices all over the state and hiring people, but TV is what moves numbers in a poll like this,” Garrett says.
Among Texas Democrats, former Vice President Joe Biden continues to lead, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders next, followed by a tie between Bloomberg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. In the new poll, Biden has the support of 35% of Democrats.
“Biden widened his lead over Sanders,” Garrett says. “In November, when UT-Tyler polled, it was 28 for Biden, 19 for Sanders. … But in January, that widened to 17 points,” Garrett says.
In the U.S. Senate race between incumbent John Cornyn, several little-known Republicans and a large field of Democratic challengers, Cornyn leads other Republicans easily. But 36% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they had not made a choice in the race.
Garrett says most of the Democrats running to unseat Cornyn are unknown to voters who were questioned.
“Only two of them, MJ Hegar and Royce West [got] above 5 percentage points each in our poll,” he says.
Written by Shelly Brisbin.
