After I published Thursday’s post about the February UT/Texas Politics Project poll that showed Rep. Jasmine Crockett leading Rep. James Talarico by a 56-44 margin in the Democratic primary for US Senate, I got a comment on Facebook saying a poll favorable to Talarico had just dropped. I asked for a link but didn’t get one, which turned out not to matter when this Downballot post on Friday showed me that there were actually two polls with such results. I didn’t go looking for news stories, I’ll just provide you the links here:
- TX-Sen (D): Public Policy Polling (D) for Lone Star Rising PAC (pro-James Talarico): James Talarico: 48, Jasmine Crockett: 42.
- TX-Sen (D): Blueprint Polling (D): Talarico: 52, Crockett: 40.
- TX-Sen (R): Blueprint: Ken Paxton: 42, John Cornyn (inc): 30, Wesley Hunt: 14.
- TX-Sen (R runoff): Blueprint
- Paxton: 49, Cornyn (inc): 36.
- Paxton: 53, Hunt: 29.
- Cornyn (inc): 42, Hunt: 37.
- TX-Gov (D): Blueprint: Gina Hinojosa: 61, Chris Bell: 4, others 3% or less.
- TX-AG (R): Blueprint: Chip Roy: 30, Mayes Middleton: 26, Joan Huffman: 11, Aaron Reitz: 11.
You can discount the pro-Talarico PAC’s poll to whatever extent you want. It’s interesting that this poll was less favorable to Talarico than the unaffiliated poll was. I doubt that means anything, but I thought it was worth noting. I don’t know anything about either of these pollsters so I don’t know what their track record is. I’m just adding them to the pile – we will certainly have something to discuss when it’s all over.
As for the Republican side, you can see where the despair among their insiders comes from. All I can say is that if they’re concerned about the possibility that Ken Paxton might do them some real damage this year, well, maybe they should have thought about that before now. Which isn’t to say that he will do them damage – or that it would be just him, since, you know, Donald Trump is a factor as well – since any Republican is the favorite to win a statewide race until proven otherwise. But he could, and they certainly worry he might. Sucks to be you, fellas. Grow some better Republicans for the future, OK?