From the inbox:
Christian Menefee
With just over a month until early voting begins in the runoff election for Texas’ 18th Congressional District, a new poll from nationally-respected Lake Research Partners shows Christian Menefee with a commanding lead in the runoff for Texas’s 18th Congressional District, outpacing Amanda Edwards by 13 points.
The poll shows Menefee leading 43% to 30% in the first ballot test, with wide support across demographics. Menefee leads +12 with women, +16 with men, +9 with voters over 55, +6 with Latino voters, +17 with White voters, and +13 with Black voters.
“These numbers confirm what we’ve felt on the ground,” said Menefee. “Voters know my record: I took on Trump and Greg Abbott – and won – to protect healthcare, voting rights, and our communities. They know I’ll bring that same fight to Congress.”
The poll also shows Menefee leading voters who view State Representative Jolanda Jones favorably. Menefee leads Edwards by 12 points (49% to 37%) in this group, a sign that coalition support is forming around his campaign.
Here’s a link to the poll memo. This is an internal poll, with no crosstabs or other data provided, so all the usual caveats apply. The memo notes that the poll was conducted between December 8-14, so before the news of the Jolanda Jones endorsement of Amanda Edwards. It’s not surprising that they would have asked people about their preference in November and their impression of Rep. Jones, since as noted she got a significant share of the first round vote.
Anyway. I note this as the first piece of polling data for the runoff. Both UH via the Hobby Center and TSU do their own polling, so I expect we’ll see some more data points as we go.