New Marist Poll finds Abbott, O'Rourke 4 points apart in governor's race

AUSTIN, Texas — It seems that with each poll that comes out the Texas race for governor keeps tightening. And the new Marist Poll out Wednesday continues that trend with Governor Greg Abbott's lead shrinking to four percentage points over challenger Beto O'Rourke.

We are now less than two weeks away from the start of early voting for the November 8 elections, and the Marist Poll's latest report on Texas voters shows 49% are choosing Governor Abbott and 45% are going with O’Rourke.

The polling indicates most Texas voters have made up their minds on the race. And with so few undecided votes left, the focus for the campaigns in the final weeks is expected to be getting out the vote for their side. Lee Miringoff of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion.

He explains, “You’re not going to be convincing the few fence-sitters to go your way. What you need to be doing is loading up folks and getting them to the polls.”

The new Marist Poll also ranked the issues Texas voters consider most important right now. Inflation came in number one followed by preserving democracy, abortion, immigration, and health care.

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The top two issues on the list are reminders of the national political tug-of-war influencing the Texas vote.

Jay DeDapper, Director of Strategy for Marist Polls says, “Every race in the country is about two guys not on the ballot—Biden and Trump. And inflation is Biden, preserving democracy is Trump.”

Months of Texas campaigns painting inflation and immigration as Biden issues successfully put those items at the top for Texas Republicans. And Marist pollsters say former President Trump and his followers' refusal to accept the results of the 2020 elections made preserving democracy the top issue for Texas Democrats.

With that said, this new poll finds both Republicans and Democrats expect this election to be a fair fight.

DeDapper says, “In Texas, it’s even for Democrats and Republicans. 76% Of both have confidence that the elections are going to be fair and accurate.”

No other state even came close to agreeing on that one.