TEXAS BUREAU

Joe Biden leads, Beto O'Rourke 2nd in presidential poll of Texas Democrats

The poll shows former Vice President Joe Biden well ahead among Texas Democrats and Donald Trump struggling in the state he won by 9 percentage points in 2016.

John C. Moritz
Corpus Christi

AUSTIN — Former Vice President Joe Biden leads the pack among Texas Democrats who said they plan to vote in next year's primary, outpacing former Congressman Beto O'Rourke and the rest of the crowded field seeking the right to take on President Donald Trump.

That's the top-line finding of a poll released Thursday by Texas Lyceum, a nonprofit organization that seeks to identify future leaders statewide.

In this Aug. 8, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Des Moines Register Soapbox during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa.

The poll taken between Aug. 16 and Aug. 29 shows Biden the choice of 24 percent of the Texas Democratic voters with O'Rourke in second place in his home state with 18 percent support. Former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro is well behind the pack leaders with just 4 percent.

Behind O'Rourke, the former El Paso congressman who lost a close race for U.S. Senate to Republican Ted Cruz last year were Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts at 15 percent, Bernie Sanders at 13 percent, and Kamala Harris at 4 percent

“This result is probably disappointing to Castro supporters, particularly his current standing among Hispanics in the state,” says Daron Shaw, a University of Texas at Austin professor and co-director of the Lyceum poll. “But the Texas primary is more than six months away, and so much is going to happen between now and then."

Castro and O'Rourke will be among the 10 Democratic presidential candidates on the debate stage in Houston on Sept. 13.

Beto O'Rourke and Julian Castro

The poll also contained some concerning number for Trump as he gears for his campaign for re-election in a state that gave him a 9-point victory in 2016 and has been reliably in the Republican column since 1980.

The poll of 1,000 respondents contacted either by cell or land-line telephones showed only 48 percent approving of the the president's performance in office while 51 percent saying he's doing a poor job. And nearly six in 10 respondents said the country is on the wrong track heading in the 2020 campaign cycle.

The poll contains some good news for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Abbott eight months into their second terms in office. For Abbott, 67 percent said the approved of his job performance. Patrick's approval rating was 60 percent.

The survey was taken in the weeks after the mass shooting that in El Paso that left 22 dead but before the shootings in Odessa on Saturday. Gun violence was listed as the top issue facing Texas by 11 percent of the respondents, second only to immigration and border security.

Ten Democratic presidential candidates qualified for September's debate. Top from left: Julián Castro, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders. Bottom from left: Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Yang

When asking about the 2020 presidential race, the poll contained responses from only 358 adults who said they were interested in voting in the March 2020 presidential primary. The margin of error among the Democrats surveyed was plus or minus 5 percentage points.

The poll did not sample head-to-head matchups between the Democrats and Trump.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.


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