Biden, O’Rourke top 2020 Dems in Texas survey

by Chris Mills Rodrigo - 04/29/19 7:58 AM ET

Former Vice President Joe Biden and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) lead the field of 2020 Democratic candidates in Texas, according to a poll released Monday.

Biden received the support of 23 percent of the likely Democratic primary voters in the Lone Star State who were polled, while O’Rourke was the favored pick for 22 percent of respondents.

“It looks like Beto O’Rourke does not have Texas locked up,” Spencer Kimball, director of the Emerson Poll, said in a statement.

{mosads}Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was the only other candidate to top 10 percent in Emerson’s survey, polling third at 17 percent.

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg polled at 8 percent and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) had 7 percent, both ahead of the other Texas candidate in the race, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, who was picked as their choice by 4 percent of respondents.

The Emerson College poll surveyed 342 likely Texas Democratic primary voters between April 25-28. The sample has a margin of error of 5.3 percentage points.

Texas’s growing Democratic base is making it more likely to be a swing state in the 2020 election, which could be significant for the party’s nominee if it flips.