Texas Election: Governor Greg Abbott furthers lead against Beto O’Rourke in new poll
A new poll puts Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, further ahead of his Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke.
The poll from The Dallas Morning News and The University of Texas at Tyler has the governor 9 percentage points ahead of O’Rourke. The poll surveyed more than 1,200 Texas registered voters and was conducted between Sept. 6 and Sept. 3. August and May versions of the survey had Abbott up by 7 percentage points.
Thirty percent of those polled believe the race between the two candidates will be close, but Abbott will win —21% of Democrats, 24% of Independents and 42% of Republicans. Thirty-nine percent of Democrats said they think the race will be very close but O’Rourke will win. Forty percent of Republicans polled think Abbott will win easily.
According to the poll, voters trust Abbott more to handle issues related to crime, securing the border, handling the electric grid, economic improvement and school improvement. O’Rourke would be better at bringing people together, the poll said. A few of the divides on the issues — the power grid, improving schools and uniting people — fell within the poll’s margin of error.
The Dallas Morning News-UT-Tyler poll follows a poll released last week from The Texas Politics Project at UT-Austin that had the margin narrowing between the two gubernatorial candidates. In that poll, Abbott was ahead with 45% of votes to O’Rourke’s 45%. The poll’s June iteration found a margin of 6 percentage point.
Election Day is Nov. 8. Early voting begins Oct. 24 and the deadline to register to vote is Oct. 11.
