Abbott leads O’Rourke by 4 points with inflation on Texas voters’ minds: poll

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) currently holds a 4-point lead over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke as inflation weighs heavy on voters’ minds ahead of November’s gubernatorial election. 

According to a new Marist College poll published Wednesday, 49 percent of registered voters said they’ll support Abbott in the upcoming gubernatorial election, while 45 percent back O’Rourke.

Among those likely to vote in the gubernatorial election, 52 percent of respondents said they’ll support Abbot, while 44 percent offered their support for O’Rourke. 

A poll from The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler released last month showed that Abbott had a 9-point advantage over O’Rourke.

In the new Marist poll, 43 percent of respondents held a favorable opinion of the incumbent governor and 46 percent had an unfavorable opinion of Abbott.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents said in the poll that they have a favorable opinion of O’Rourke, a former 2020 presidential candidate, while 44 percent of respondents had an unfavorable view.

The Abbott-O’Rourke showdown has drawn significant national media attention, due to O’Rourke’s high profile and Abbott’s controversial policies around immigration, abortion and gun rights.

However, 28 percent of state respondents said that inflation is the most important issue for them with the election just a few weeks away.

Twenty-one percent of respondents said preserving democracy is their top voting concern, followed by 16 percent who said abortion, 13 percent who said immigration and 10 percent who said health care.

Along party lines, Republican respondents cited inflation and immigration as their top voting issues, while abortion and preserving democracy were top priorities for Democrats. Independents cited inflation and preserving democracy as their main voting priorities. 

The new Marist College poll was conducted from Oct. 3 to Oct. 6 with a total of 1,058  respondents participating in the survey. The poll’s margin of error was 4.4 percentage points.