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Biden leads in the poll with Beto coming in second

Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke is lagging behind Democratic front-runner Joe Biden for the Presidential nomination in his home state of Texas. A poll commissioned by the University of Texas found Biden beating O’Rourke by eight points, 23 percent to 15 percent, among Democratic primary voters.

O’Rourke gained a strong grassroots following in Texas when he ran against Republican Senator Ted Cruz for Cruz’s Senate seat in 2018. O’Rourke lost, but gained national popularity, leading him to throw his hat in the Presidential ring earlier this year. But O’Rourke is polling behind Biden in his home state–a result the pollsters themselves called surprising. O’Rourke is basically tied with Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Senator who is also seeking the nomination.

The poll found Texas voters evenly divided in their support for re-electing President Trump. 39 percent of respondents said they would “definitely” vote for Trump again; 11 percent said they “probably would;” and 43 percent said they would “definitely not” cast a vote for Trump. 45 percent of independent voters in Texas said they would “definitely not” vote for Trump–indicating the state is less reliably Republican than in elections past.

Four days ago, O’Rourke said people who want Biden for President are trying to “return to the past.”

“You cannot go back to the end of the Obama administration and think that that’s good enough. As much of a horror show as Trump has been — his racism, the disaster of his foreign policy, his punishment of farmers and workers here in this country — we had real problems before Donald Trump became President,” O’Rourke said on Joe Scarborough’s show, “Morning Joe.”