Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico has a slight lead over state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a new CBS News poll that also has Gov. Greg Abbott back on top in his re-election bid.
The CBS News survey of 1,492 registered Texas voters was conducted Oct. 8-16, comes days after a University of Texas at Austin poll showed nearly all Democrats in statewide contests having a narrow lead over their Republican opponents. It also closed just three days before early voting in Texas begins on Monday.
The latest poll gives Abbott a slight lead over his challenger, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, 52% to 48%. Just a little over half of those polled, 51%, said they disapproved of Abbott’s performance as governor.
In the closely watched Senate race, Talarico leads Paxton 51% to 49%. Talarico held a three point lead in the UT-Austin poll. The CBS News poll didn’t ask voters about the Lieutenant Governor’s race between incumbent Dan Patrick and Democratic challenger state Rep. Vikki Goodwin.
The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 3.4 percentage points, essentially putting the races up for grabs in a state where no Democrat has won statewide office since 1994.
The poll also took the voters’ pulse on general questions. For example, only 15% of those surveyed said they felt that things were going well in Texas. The largest share of voters, 33%, said things are going somewhat well. A quarter said things were going somewhat badly, and another quarter said things are going very badly.
More voters in the CBS News poll were dismayed with the way Trump is handling his job as president, with 55% of those surveyed saying they disapproved of his performance. The majority of those surveyed also said they believe Trump’s policies have hurt Texas’ economy. A little over a third said Trump’s policies have helped Texas’ economy, and 17% they felt he hadn’t made much of a difference either way.