Texas voters weigh in on November midterm elections in new poll

EAST TEXAS — The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler released a new poll Sunday that asked Texas voters their thoughts about the November midterm elections, including the race between Gov. Abbott and Beto O’Rourke, and other issues affecting the state. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is maintaining a modest lead over Democrat Beto O’Rourke in the race for Texas governor. According to the new poll, Abbott has a 7-point cushion over O’Rourke, unchanged from a similar survey in May.

Powering the Governor’s lead is his handling of the Texas economy, with 53% favoring his stewardship and 41% who disapprove. Only 9% blamed Abbott or Texas lawmakers for inflation, while 48% blamed higher costs for goods and services on President Biden. The poll found that 63% don’t think elected officials are doing enough to stop mass shootings. Roughly the same number of Texans are concerned about gun violence in their community. Also, a majority of voters – 56% to 43% – say Texas is headed in the wrong direction under Abbott’s leadership.

Still, Abbott won most of the poll’s questions on who voters trust. Respondents gave him the nod over O’Rourke when it comes to reducing crime (43% TO 30%), securing the border (45% TO 26%), improving the economy (42% TO 32%), and even handling the power grid (35% TO 33%). O’Rourke did beat Abbott in one category: 37% thought he would do a better job of bringing people together, compared with 32% for Abbott.

The poll, conducted AUG. 1-7, surveyed 1,384 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.