Poll: Biden tops O’Rourke by 9 points in Texas

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D) among Lone Star State 2020 presidential primary voters, according to a poll conducted by Emerson College for the Dallas Morning News.

In the poll released Tuesday, conducted among 1,033 registered voters from Aug. 1 to 3, Biden leads the Democratic White House field with 27.7 percent, followed by O’Rourke with 19 percent and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) with 15.7 percent.

{mosads}Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) round out the top five, with 13.7 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.

The poll was conducted just before the weekend’s mass shooting in El Paso, which killed 22 and prompted O’Rourke to leave the campaign trail to return to his hometown.

With the revelation that the suspect in the shooting is believed to have published a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto, O’Rourke has vocally condemned white supremacist rhetoric and accused President Trump of amplifying talk of an “invasion” of migrants.

Tuesday’s poll also showed no clear front-runner in the Democratic Senate primary to challenge Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) next year, with 51 percent of respondents saying they were unsure.

“Someone else” was the most popular choice among alternatives list, with 19 percent, followed by former Army helicopter pilot MJ Hegar, one of the highest-profile entrants into the race thus far, with 10 percent.

State Sen. Royce West, meanwhile, was at 8 percent, followed by former Rep. Chris Bell with 7 percent and Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards with 5 percent.

However, the polling also indicated vulnerabilities for Cornyn, who has held his seat since 2003, finding he has a 37 percent approval rating, with 31 percent disapproval and 33 percent of Texans having no opinion.

By contrast, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had a 50 percent approval rating with 27 percent disapproval.