Politics
POLL: Abbott holds lead over Beto O’Rourke in Texas gov. race
The survey found that 46% of registered voters would choose Abbott in a race for governor, while 39% would choose O’Rourke. The 7-point cushion was the same found in a similar poll in May conducted by the same two firms.
August 15, 2022 6:20pm
Updated: August 16, 2022 10:23am
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot (R) has continued to hold a 7-point lead over his 2022 opponent, Democrat Beto O’Rourke, according to a new poll released Sunday.
The survey, conducted by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler, found that 46% of registered voters would choose Abbott in a race for governor, while 39% would choose O’Rourke.
The 7-point cushion was the same found in a similar poll in May conducted by the same two firms.
The gap widened to 10 points when considering only voters “certain to vote” – 51% for Abbot, 41% for O’Rourke. Latinos favored O’Rourke over Abbott by the same 7-point margin, 45% to 38%.
There were slightly more Democrats willing to cross party lines to vote for Abbot (12%) compared to Republicans who would do the same for O’Rourke (8%).
47% of voters polled – including 79% of Republicans – approved of the current governor’s job performance and 49% disapproved – including 76% of Democrats. More than half of voters said they thought Texas was “headed off on the wrong track” under current leadership (56%).
However, 53% of those surveyed approved of Abbot on his handling of the state economy, with seven in ten reporting they were more stressed about their finances than a year ago (70%) and a whopping 87% saying increased prices had a “minor” or “major” impact on their current household finances.
Latinos were most likely to say increased prices had a “major” impact on their current household financial situation at 4%
51% of Texas voters also reported they approved of how Abbott was handling immigration on the Texas-Mexico border. He also had strong support for his order to inspect all commercial vehicles at the border (78%), using state funds to deploy the National Guard and state DPS officers to the border (57%), and busing those processed by CBP to Washington D.C. (51%).
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has accused Abbot and Arizona Gov. Pete Ducey of “tricking” migrants onto the buses that have been arriving from their states since April.
