Texas Poll: Gov. Greg Abbott Holds 10 Point Lead over Beto O’Rourke

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) holds a double-digit lead over Democrat Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke in a hypothetical head-to-head gubernatorial poll from the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

The poll found that 47 percent of the registered Texas voters said they would vote for Abbott, 10 percent more than the Democrat primary candidate.

In comparison, only 37 percent of the respondents said they would vote for O’Rourke, who has had failed in his last two campaign attempts — losing against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in 2018 and a failed presidential bid in 2020.

There was also six percent of the respondents who said that they would vote for “someone else,” and 11 percent said they “haven’t thought about it enough to have an opinion.”

Forty-four percent of the respondents said they approve of how the two-term Republican governor has handed his job, while 17 percent of those respondents said they “strongly approve.” In comparison, 42 percent disapproved of how Abbott has handled his job. There was 12 percent said “neither,” with four percent who said, “don’t know enough/no opinion.”

O’Rourke’s has a higher unfavorability. Only 36 percent of the respondents had a favorable option of the Democrat, while a higher percentage, 43 percent, found him unfavorable. Fourteen percent said “neither,” with six percent who said, “don’t know enough/no opinion.”

While Abbott has the support of former President Donald Trump, O’Rourke recently said during a press conference that he wants President Joe Biden and any other politician from Washington, DC, to stay away from his campaign.

“I’m not interested in any national politician — anyone outside of Texas — coming into this state to help decide the outcome of this,” O’Rourke said, noting that he wants to only “work with” and “listen to” people from the Lone Star State.

The Texas Politics Project poll was conducted between January 28 and February 7. The questions were asked to 1,200 registered voters in Texas and saw a margin of error of plus or minus 2.83 percentage points.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.