In national, state, and local elections, there is hardly a more Republican-friendly state than Texas, which hasn’t voted Democratic for President since 1976 and for Governor since 1990. In statewide elections, it has only voted for Republicans for the last two decades. starting with the 1998 re-election landslide of (then) Governor George W. Bush. With a predicted surge of Democratic enthusiasm this year, however, could “Texas turn blue ?” JMC was commissioned to poll the state of Texas to find out.

The poll can be viewed here, and there are two main takeaways: (1) Governor Abbott is in good shape, but against either Democratic opponent (the Democratic runoff is today), he is not securely above 50%, and (2) Senator Ted Cruz faces a more challenging re-election, given (1) his modest lead over a (thus far) little known Democrat, and (2) given that he is “underwater” with his approval ratings.