The Democratic candidate in the Texas Senate race has a slight edge over his Republican opponent in a new poll released Friday.

Forty-seven percent of likely general election voters in the state backed state Rep. James Talarico (D) in the poll from Texas Public Opinion Research, compared with 44 percent for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).

The survey was conducted after the Republican primary runoff contest Tuesday, in which incumbent Sen. John Cornyn lost to Paxton, who had been endorsed by President Trump.

The latest poll follows a decision from the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, to adjust its rating of the race from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican” following Paxton’s win.

Nearly a third of the respondents who voted for Cornyn in the runoff indicated in the poll that they will support the Democratic nominee in the November election. A plurality — 44 percent — of these voters said they will now choose Paxton, and 23 percent were undecided.

In a social media post following Cornyn’s defeat, Talarico thanked the incumbent senator for his years of public service and extended an olive branch to his supporters.

“We don’t agree on everything, but we both still believe in public service. To Senator Cornyn’s supporters: you have a place in our campaign,” the state representative wrote in the post.

Of the Cornyn voters who said they will now back Talarico, more than half cited the criminal charges against Paxton and corruption concerns.

Paxton was indicted in 2015 on felony charges in a securities fraud case. Republican state legislators voted to impeach the attorney general in 2023, and he was later acquitted by lawmakers in the Texas state Senate.

The two candidates have ramped up political advertisements targeting one another’s character and campaigns in the aftermath of the GOP runoff.

Talarico’s campaign posted Paxton’s mug shot on social media following the state attorney general’s victory and highlighted criticism from GOP state lawmakers from the impeachment vote in another post.

“Ken Paxton has a criminal record; I have a legislative record,” the state legislator told MS NOW.

Paxton has criticized the state lawmaker for his previous decision to follow a vegan diet and his comment that “God is nonbinary.”

Trump weighed in on the fight in a post on Truth Social following Paxton’s victory, calling Talarico “the worst TEXAS candidate I have ever seen.”

“A Strong Open Borders advocate, he is WEAK ON CRIME, believes there are 6 genders, is insulting to Jesus Christ, will never support the Military, was a big Mask Wearer until recently, and is a Vegan who dislikes meat, not exactly a good way to be if you’re wanting to win an Election in Texas,” the president wrote in the post.

Trump also pledged in the post to “do some nice, big, beautiful rallies for Ken.”

The Texas Public Opinion Research poll was conducted May 27-28 among 1,670 likely Texas voters and has a margin of error of approximately 2.8 percentage points.

Updated at 10:01 p.m. EDT

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