GOP Firm Poll Finds Biden Up by 4 in Texas
with Hegar Pulling Almost Even with Cornyn

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
September 21, 2020

A Republican organization in Florida found Democrat Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by four points in Texas late last month when U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Democratic challenger MJ Hegar were running neck and neck in a poll that was make public on Monday.

The Tyson Group survey in August showed Biden with 48 percent support in Texas while Cornyn and Hegar were locked in a statistical tie with 44 percent and 42 percent respectively.

The firm that's based in Tallahassee had included Texas in a poll that was commissioned by energy interests for the sake of gauging public opinion on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The Tyson Group also surveyed voters in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi on their preferences in the 2020 presidential competition.

A data research company that's run by prominent GOP consultant Ryan Tyson, the firm's findings in Florida and Mississippi were in sync with other recent polls in those two southern states. Biden was up on Trump by 2 points in Florida in the Tyson survey while the president had a 10-point advantage in Mississippi.

The biggest shocker came in Alabama where the poll found Trump with a lead of only 4 points less than four years after crushing Democrat Hillary Clinton there by 25. While minimal amounts of polling have been conducted in Alabama as one of the nation's most heavily Republican states, the president had led Biden by 18 points on average in two surveys that were taken there in July.

The margin of the Biden advantage in Texas in the Tyson Group poll a month will raise some eyebrows in a state where the race for the White House had appeared to be very close throughout the summer. Trump has been up on Biden by one point on average in independent polls in the Lone Star State throughout the coronavirus crisis that got under way more than six months ago.

The Tyson Group had a down-ballot surprise call in the late August poll in Mississippi where Democrat Mike Espy had pulled to within 1 point of Republican U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith after trailing by 26 in a survey that the firm conducted there in March.

Hegar had her best showing yet in the Tyson Group poll in August when Cornyn was ahead in Texas by a mere two points after trailing by only 5 in a poll last week. Cornyn had a double-digit lead in other polls that had been taken here up to then.

 

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