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Chip Roy Has Big Lead in Texas AG Race
while Cornyn and Paxton in Statistical Tie
Capitol Inside
October 9, 2025
A new Texas poll shows U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin with a commanding lead in an open race for Texas attorney general with almost twice as much support among GOP voters than three Republican primary rivals who'd been running for several months before he entered the fray in September.
The poll for the University of Houston in a collaboration with Texas Southern University found the conservative congressional member with support from 40 percent of the Republicans in the sample in the battle for the post that Attorney General Ken Paxton is giving up in favor a U.S. Senate bid.
State Senator Joan Huffman of Houston was received a nod from 12 percent of the GOP voters in the UH-TSU survey that was conducted by YouGov for the two public colleges. Former Assistant AG Aaron Reitz was third with 8 percent in the survey on the competition between the Republicans for attorney general while State Senator Mayes Middleton of Galveston had a mere 3 percent.
Cornyn and Paxton are running neck-and-neck in the Republican primary fight in the race at the top of the Texas ticket in 2026. Paxton was up by 1 point with support from 34 percent of the Texas voters who participated in the poll that was U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt - a Houston Republican who entered the U.S. Senate contest this week - was preferred by 22 percent of the voters in the UH-TSU survey.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas led a trio of Democrats in the Houston universities' polling on the U.S. Senate showdown in Texas in 2026 with support from 31 percent of the respondents. But Crockett hasn't appeared to be interested in running for the U.S. Senate next year.
Democratic State Rep. James Talarico of Austin posted his best showing as a U.S. Senate contender in polling on the race up to now. Talarico was tied with Beto O'Rourke at 25 percent apiece in the UH-Texas Southern survey while Colin Allred was backed by 13 percent in the chase for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat that Cornyn is fighting to keep.
But Allred led Talarico by 4 points with 46 percent in a hypothetical head-to-head pairing in theh Democratic primary fight for the Senate nomination.
O'Rourke - like Crockett - hasn't been planning to run for any elected office in 2026. O'Rourke lost to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz by less than 3 percentage points in 2018. Cruz defeated Allred by 9 points last fall.
Democrats have been pulling for Paxton to emerge victorious in a probable GOP primary runoff as a result of personal woes including his impeachment by the Texas House in 2023 and a divorce that his wife who's a state senator initiated earlier this year.
But the UH-TSU poll showed Hunt faring slightly better against Talarico and Allred in hypothetical general election match up than Cornyn and Paxton.
President Donald Trump continued to be underwater with Texas voters in the survey - with 45 percent approving of his performance in his second term and 52 percent expressing their disapproval.
more to come ...
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