Name: New Texas poll shows virtual tie between Trump and Biden, soft support for Cornyn
Brand: dallasnews.com
SKU: dallasnews-com-82
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

New Texas poll shows virtual tie between Trump and Biden, soft support for Cornyn

preview

1:06 PM on Jun 3, 2020 CDT — Updated at 3:51 PM on Jun 3, 2020 CDTWASHINGTON — A new Texas poll shows the state up for grabs in November, with President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in a statistical tie.It also shows Sen. John Cornyn with an anemic 37% job approval rating five months from Election Day, when he’s trying to win a fourth six-year term.Trump edges Biden 44-43 in the new Quinnipiac University Poll, with voters giving Trump a strong endorsement when asked who would handle the economy better — 54-40 — but a small edge to Biden on who could better handle the coronavirus pandemic that put more than 40 million Americans out of work.“Too tight to tell in Texas. As the country confronts chaos and COVID-19, perhaps one of the most important states of all is a toss-up,” said Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy.Texas hasn’t sided with a Democrat in a presidential race since 1976, when Jimmy Carter won the White House.Trump’s support in Texas seems to have a hard ceiling, with 48% of voters saying they definitely won’t vote for him in the fall, 35% saying they definitely will, and 14% holding it out as a possibility. Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 9 percentage points in 2016, and Republicans effectively have no chance to win the White House without carrying Texas.The new poll tracks which showed Biden and Trump locked in a tie at 43% each.That could explain some of Trump’s interest in holding the party’s August nominating convention in Texas, after North Carolina refused to commit to allowing Republicans to pack a Charlotte arena with the COVID-19 outbreak still raging.Trump’s spotlight on Texas includes a trip to Dallas next Thursday, June 11, where he’ll – though he’ll only get to rub elbows with two dozen high dollar donors at a $580,600 per couple dinner. His last mass rally was in late February.Related:Cornyn’s approval rating suggests some vulnerability for him, too.Texas voters are about evenly split, with 37% saying they approve of the job he’s doing, and 36% saying they disapprove. That’s a far lower approval rating than other top Republicans in Texas, and also a worse ratio.Gov. Greg Abbott, for instance, scored 56–32. Sen. Ted Cruz is at 45-42, though he was at a far more generous 49-40 last September. Trump is underwater, however, with a 45-50 approve/disapprove rating that hasn’t budged since Quinnipiac’s Texas poll in September.Two Democrats are vying to face Cornyn in the fall. Former Air Force combat pilot M.J. Hegar and state Sen. Royce West of Dallas are in a July 14 primary runoff. Neither has anything close to Cornyn’s financial resources, though. National Democrats would love to nab the seat but haven’t made any serious moves to try so far.At this point two years ago, The El Paso Democrat five months later, holding him below a 3-point victory margin.Wednesday’s poll didn’t test Cornyn head-to-head against either potential challenger.The new poll comes as the nation copes with unrest over police brutality, an ongoing pandemic, and massive unemployment and economic upheaval.More than 40 million Americans have filed for jobless benefits in the last three months.The number in Texas tops 2.2 million. The state’s latest unemployment rate of 12.8% is a record for Texas, though it’s also in better shape than all but a half-dozen other states.Related:Despite the pain, Texans give generally high marks to Abbott for managing the crisis and calibrating the balance between restrictions to protect public health and steps toward restarting the economy.* 49% say Abbott has handled the stay-home restrictions “about right.”* 38% say he’s moved “too fast” to reopen Texas businesses and lift restrictions.* 12% say "not quickly enough” when asked to rate Abbott’s decisions about restrictions.More than a third of Texas voters personally know someone who was diagnosed with COVID-19. That includes nearly half (47%) of black voters, reflecting public health guidance that minority communities have been hit especially hard.Concern about ongoing contagion is widespread.More than half of Texans (51%) are worried about become seriously ill from the new coronavirus. Tracking that anxiety, nearly two-thirds (65%) want face masks to be mandatory inside businesses, and 58% want masks to be mandatory outdoors in public, too.There’s no consensus on whether it will be safe to resume classes for elementary, middle and high schools in the fall. By a 48-45 margin, more say it won’t be safe in time to reopen schools by then.A flurry of polls made public on Wednesday show that nationally, Americans have grown increasingly uncomfortable with Trump’s handling of protests that began early last week, sparked by a police killing in Minneapolis.A white officer held a handcuffed black suspect, George Floyd, face down for nearly nine minutes with a knee in his neck, ignoring pleas from Floyd and onlookers that he couldn’t breathe. On Wednesday, Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison, who took over the case from the county prosecutor, upgraded the charge against Officer Derek Chauvin to second degree murder. Ellison also filed charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder against three other officers at the scene. All four were fired last week.Protests against police brutality quickly spread to cities nationwide, some marred by clashes between police and protesters, or by looting and other acts of violence.With tensions already high, a confrontation outside the White House on Monday night pushed mistrust to new heights. U.S. Park Police cleared Lafayette Square with smoke canisters that left eyes burning – they the agency later denied using tear gas – and with rubber pellets, shortly before Trump strode through the park to the historic St. John’s Church.At the church, Trump held a Bible aloft in a gesture that struck his critics as a dictatorial boast.A found that 55% of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the protests. Only a third said they approved, which is lower than his more recent job approval rating, an anemic 39%.Almost as many Americans (53%) the same margin, say race relations have deteriorated during Trump’s presidency, according to a new . And 56% blame Trump for worsening divisions in the country via his Twitter activity, according to a new .Related:The Trump campaign cited a , registered voters support having governors call in the U.S. military to help local police handle protests.In Texas, Cornyn and Cruz defended the use of force at Lafayette Square, and Trump’s photo op at the church, though only a handful of fellow Texas Republicans in the U.S. House joined that chorus. Democrats universally condemned the president.Trump has sought to blame violence at protests on antifa, a loose network of left-wing militants that is “anti fascist” but lacks any known organizational structure.Receive the latest political news delivered every Tuesday and Thursday from reporters in Austin, Dallas and Washington.By signing up you agree to our

1:06 PM on Jun 3, 2020 CDT — Updated at 3:51 PM on Jun 3, 2020 CDTWASHINGTON — A new Texas poll shows the state up for grabs in November, with President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in a statistical tie.It also shows Sen. John Cornyn with an anemic 37% job approval rating five months from Election Day, when he’s trying to win a fourth six-year term.Trump edges Biden 44-43 in the new Quinnipiac University Poll, with voters giving Trump a strong endorsement when asked who would handle the economy better — 54-40 — but a small edge to Biden on who could better handle the...

New Texas poll shows virtual tie between Trump and Biden, soft support for Cornyn

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS