{"id":440500,"date":"2026-09-19T00:12:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T00:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/440500\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T00:12:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T00:12:22","slug":"texas-governor-race-swings-to-hinojosa-in-latest-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/440500\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas governor race swings to Hinojosa in latest poll"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/abbotthinojosa2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"764\" height=\"432\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-v-653d32e2=\"\"\/> article    <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The latest poll comparing Gov. Greg Abbott and his Democratic opponent Gina Hinojosa shows the challenger leading by four points.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The poll released by ReconMR and the Siena Research Institute shows Hinojosa leading 49% to 45% a month before early voting begins in Texas. The same poll showed Abbott leading 46% to 45% in July.<\/p>\n<p> Independent voters break for Hinojosa  <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">According to the poll, the lead for Hinojosa comes from independent voters who are increasingly moving toward the Democrat.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;The movement over the last three months is largely seen by looking at independent voters who now favor Hinojosa by 38 points, 65-27%, up from 13 points, 49-36%, in July,&#8221; ReconMR Senior Research Analyst Lindsey Hendren said.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Local perspective:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The poll shows Hinojosa with large leads in Austin, DFW and San Antonio, while Abbott leads in more rural areas of the state.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">However, despite leading the poll, Hendren said voters did not think Hinojosa would win the election.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;When asked who they think will win the election for governor, 62% say Abbott. Nearly a third of voters who say they\u2019ll vote for Hinojosa think Abbott will ultimately win the election,&#8221; Hendren said.<\/p>\n<p> Voters feel both candidates are qualified <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Big picture view:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Voters said they felt both candidates were qualified to be Texas&#8217; next governor, with more voters saying Abbott (56%) was qualified compared to Hinojosa (53%).<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Voters were also split on who would better manage the most important issues facing Texans:<\/p>\n<p> Making prices more affordable: Hinojosa 51%, Abbott 44%Managing water supply: Hinojosa 49%, Abbott 43%Managing construction of data centers: Hinojosa 45%, Abbott 42%Securing U.S.-Mexico border: Abbott 53%, Hinojosa 39%Keeping Texans safe: Abbott 49%, Hinojosa 44% <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Texans also feel like both candidates are in touch with Texas values.<\/p>\n<p> Talarico stretches lead to 6 points in Senate race <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">By the numbers:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The poll also asked voters to weigh in on the U.S. Senate race between Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Compared to the same poll in July, Talarico has extended his lead by two points, up to six, 49% to 43%.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Similar to the governor race, a shift in independent voters can at least be partially attributed to the lead.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;This movement can also be seen by looking at independent voters, who now favor Talarico by 40 points, 64\u201324%, up from 23 points, 53\u201330% in July,&#8221; Hendren said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The poll was conducted Sept. 8\u201311 and surveyed 614 likely Texas voters and has a margin of error of +\/- 4.3%.<\/p>\n<p> Others races remain close <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">According to ReconMR, the race for attorney general and lieutenant governor remain close as well:<\/p>\n<p> Texas attorney general: Republican Mayes Middleton leads Democrat Nathan Johnson, 45% to 44%Lt. Gov.: Democrat Vikki Goodwin leads Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, 47% to 46% <\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information in this article comes from a Sept. 17 ReconMR poll of 614 likely Texas voters and has a margin of error of +\/- 4.3%.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/us\/tx\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/politics\/tx-politics\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas Politics<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/people\/greg-abbott\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Greg Abbott<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/elections-2026\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 Elections<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article The latest poll comparing Gov. Greg Abbott and his Democratic opponent Gina Hinojosa shows the challenger leading&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[409,3485,392,391,287,27,29,28,216,395,393],"class_list":["post-440500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-election","tag-elections-2026","tag-greg-abbott","tag-people","tag-politics","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tx","tag-tx-politics","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}