Texas Poll Shows Trump’s Lead is in the Single Digits

Among likely voters, Trump is up seven points in a four-way race. Among registered voters, he’s up by only one point.

By Rhonda FanningSeptember 15, 2016 10:42 am

Numbers show a much tighter presidential race than anyone might imagine in what’s often considered to be the reddest of red states. The Texas Lyceum released its closely watched polling results yesterday, showing that the race to the White House is still neck-and-neck.

Joshua Blank, manager of polling and research at the Texas Politics Project and research director at the Texas Lyceum, says in a four-way race that included Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Trump’s lead was “only” seven points over Hillary Clinton among likely voters.

“I say ‘only’ because the generic Republican advantage that we expect in a statewide race here is usually on the order of low double-digits,” he says. “Looking over the Lyceum poll back in 2012 … Romney was up 19 points and ending up winning by about 16. This is definitely a much tighter race than we would normally expect.”

Among registered voters, Blank says Trump is up only one point. Earlier this month, a Washington Post 50-state poll showed Clinton leading in Texas by one point among registered voters in a two-way race. Blank said their results confirmed that lead.

“We actually show Clinton up four [points] among registered voters in Texas,” he says. “The registered voter pool is much more diverse than the people who historically show up in Texas elections.”

Post by Hannah McBride.