Biden Doubles Up Rivals and Other News for February 2

TXElects February 2, 2020

This article is preserved from the TXElects archive. For current coverage, read The Political Spotlight.

Joe Biden has twice the support as any other Democratic candidate in Texas but would still narrowly lose the state to President Trump, according to a new Dallas Morning News/Univ. of Texas-Tyler poll. Biden is the first choice of 38% of respondents “who identify as Democrat,” followed by Bernie Sanders (19%), Elizabeth Warren (17%) and Michael Bloomberg (13%). No other candidate’s support reaches 5%. In November, UT-Tyler found Biden’s lead over Sanders was 9 points, 28%-19%, among Democrats.

Trump narrowly bests Biden, 44%-42%, and Bloomberg, 45%-42%, though both results are within the poll’s stated margin of error of ±2.87%. Independents break almost evenly between Biden (36%) and Trump (34%) with 30% saying “neither” or “other.” Bloomberg does slightly better among independents (39%-34%) but worse among Democrats. Trump leads Sanders, 45%-39%, and Warren, 46%-37%. Respondents were almost evenly split on Trump’s job performance with 45% approving and 47% disapproving, a slight improvement from the 43/49 rating in November.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R) has a 38/30 approval rating, including a 63/9 rating among Republicans. All four of his primary opponents polled in the low single digits, but 36% of Republican voters “aren’t sure whom they’ll support.” None of the Democratic candidates has the support of even 10% of respondents, as 56% said they were “not sure,” which is an increase from 52% in November.

The poll of 1,169 registered voters was in the field January 21-30. The survey included phone interviews and online surveys in English and Spanish.

Registration Deadline: Tomorrow (Monday) is the deadline to register to vote in order to participate in the March 3 primary election. An estimated 2.36M Texans are eligible to vote but not registered.

HD25 open: Texas Right to Life PAC endorsed Rhonda Seth to succeed the retiring Speaker Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton).

HD27: Gov. Greg Abbott (R) endorsed Manish Seth for the Republican nomination to challenge Rep. Ron Reynolds (D-Missouri City).

HD97: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram endorsed Elizabeth Beck for the Democratic nomination to challenge Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Fort Worth).

HD116: The San Antonio Express-News endorsed Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio) and Fernando Padron (R) for their respective party nominations.

CD17 open: Texans for Fiscal Responsibility/Empower Texans endorsed George Hindman to succeed the retiring U.S. Rep. Bill Flores (R-Bryan).

CD26: The Dallas Morning News endorsed U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Lewisville) and Mat Pruneda (D) for their respective party nominations.

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