Trump, Biden presidential race in Texas ‘too tight to tell,’ new poll shows
President Donald Trump and Democratic competitor Joe Biden aren’t looked on fondly by many Texans, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday, and neither has a clear advantage among the state’s voters in the 2020 race.
Trump only has a 1-point lead, of 44% to Biden’s 43%, the poll shows.
“Too tight to tell in Texas. As the country confronts chaos and COVID-19, perhaps one of the most important states of all is a toss-up,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said.
The data also suggest many voters may feel they’re being presented with two options they don’t like.
Biden is viewed favorably by 38% of voters, whereas 45% view him unfavorably. This is a reverse from February 2019, when 48% of Texans said they liked the former Obama administration VP, and 38% had an unfavorable view.
Trump is both more loved and more hated than Biden, based on the numbers. A full half of respondents said they view the president unfavorably, while 42% have a positive opinion of him.
A blue Texas?
The two may be neck and neck according to the poll, but Texas hasn’t gone blue in a presidential race since 1976, for Jimmy Carter.
In 2016, Trump took the Lone Star State with 52.2% of the vote, while Hillary Clinton came in nearly 10 points behind at 43.2%.
Few polling agencies would have been surprised to see another Democrat lose the state in 2016. Most predicted a landslide Trump victory, according to data collected by Real Clear Politics. But across the board, Clinton ran a closer race than expected.
Some suggest Texas’ rapidly changing demographics, the Latino population in particular, could be setting the stage for a leftist resurgence now and in the years ahead, Austin NPR affiliate KUT reported.
Republicans maintain a strong grip on the state, but not everyone in the party is confident that will last, unless big changes are made.
“We just haven’t done a good job of mining new voters,” Artemio Muniz, chairman of the Texas Federation of Hispanic Republicans, told the outlet. “I look at the Hispanic community as the perfect base to find new voters from, but we just don’t know how to do it. I mean, I know how to do it, and other guys who are younger know how to do it. … But the Republican Party keeps relying on old dinosaurs to try to figure out how not to go extinct.”
The big issues
Respondents to the Quinnipiac poll also weighed in on coronavirus. They were split regarding which candidate would better handle the coronavirus pandemic, with 47% favoring Biden and 45% favoring Trump.
As for Trump’s actual handling of the pandemic so far, 47% were approving and 51% were disapproving.
When comparing the two candidates on which would do better overseeing the economy, Trump came out far ahead, with 54% saying he’s better suited, compared with 40% for Biden.
But when it comes to health care, 49% placed their confidence in Biden, and 43% for Trump.
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 6:02 PM.