Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has expanded his lead over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke, largely because of how the incumbent has shifted his focus to immigration in the midst of a surge of migrants crossing the southern border.
About 47% of Texas voters say they’d back Abbott for another term as governor, compared to just 38% for O’Rourke, giving the Republican incumbent a 9-point advantage over his Democratic challenger, according to a new Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler poll. The new numbers show how much ground Abbott has gained since his 7-point lead last month.
O’ROURKE OUTRAISES ABBOTT FOR FIRST TIME DESPITE TRAILING IN POLLS
“A clear change in the election is that the Abbott campaign started advertising and they went negative, while being the only campaign on the air,” said poll Director Mark Owens, according to the outlet. “Registered voters who say they saw the advertisements supported Gov. Abbott 23% more often.”
Voters have particularly approved of Abbot’s handling of the border crisis, with 52% favoring the incumbent over proposals from O’Rourke, the poll showed. Those numbers reflect the Texas governor’s recent action to bus more than 10,000 migrants from the state to areas such as Washington, D.C., and New York as a way to highlight the border crisis.
Most notably, Abbott approved the transfer of more than 100 migrants from Texas to Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence at the Naval Observatory on Thursday in retaliation for comments she made that the southern border was “secure.” Days later, Abbott approved another busload of immigrants that arrived on Saturday, Sept. 17.
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The move to bus migrants to northern jurisdictions has resonated with Texas voters, with 54% saying they approve, according to the poll. The Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler poll surveyed 1,268 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
Despite trailing in the polls, O’Rourke has shown some strength in fundraising, outraising Abbott during the second quarter of the year. O’Rourke raked in $27.6 million from more than 511,000 individual donors between Feb. 20 and June 30, according to his campaign. That puts him ahead of Abbott’s gains during the same time period, as the incumbent raised $24.9 million from nearly 113,000 donors.
