Vice President Kamala Harris is doing better with Texas voters than President Joe Biden, according to a new poll, but former President Donald Trump still leads.
A poll from the University of Houston Hobby School and Texas Southern University Jordan-Leland School released in July put Trump ahead of Biden, the then presumptive Democratic nominee, by about 9 percentage points. The survey was conducted between June 20 and July 1, with most of the fieldwork done before the June 27 presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
But in the weeks that followed, Biden dropped out of the race after calls from within his own party for him to step aside. Harris is now the Democratic nominee, which could make for a tight race in Texas, if the latest poll findings hold true.
According to the latest poll from the University of Houston’s Hobby School and Texas Southern University’s Jordan-Leland School, Trump has a lead of about 5 points.
The poll of 1,365 likely voters in Texas, 878 of whom also participated in the earlier poll, found that 49.5% plan to vote for Trump, 44.6% back Harris, 2% back Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 0.7% back Jill Stein of the Green Party, 0.5% back Libertarian Chase Oliver and 2.7% are undecided.
In the June poll, 40.3% said they would support Biden and 48.9% said they would support Trump.
How favorable are the presidential and vice presidential candidates?
How beneficial are Trump, Harris and their running mates to Texas voters?
Of those polled, 49% view Trump very favorably or somewhat favorably, compared with 50% in the poll released in July. In the more recent poll, half viewed him at least unfavorably, while 1% didn’t know enough to form an opinion.
Forty-eight percent view Harris as at least somewhat favorable, up from 42% in the July poll. Fifty-one view her somewhat or very unfavorable, with 1% not knowing enough to have an opinion.
In the poll released in July, 44% thought Biden was somewhat or very positive.
As for the vice presidential candidates, respondents were evenly divided on his overall popularity (44% each), with 12% saying they don’t know enough to have an opinion. Forty percent viewed Walz at least somewhat favorably, while 39% viewed him at least somewhat unfavorably. Twenty-one percent said they don’t know enough to have an opinion.
Some likely voters have weighed in on both polls. What did they say?
Looking at the 878 likely Texas voters who responded to both polls, Trump has a 4-point lead over Harris. Voters gave Trump a 5.5-point lead over Biden in the version released in July.
Trump retained 97% of his votes, while 2% switched to Harris in August and 1% said they were not yet sure who they would vote for.
Harris retained the support of 96% of likely Biden voters, with 3% saying in the August poll that they now planned to vote for Trump and 1% not yet sure.
Kennedy retained 31% of his vote in June, while 44% voted for Harris in August and 21% went for Trump.
