AUSTIN, Texas — A recent poll of possible 2022 candidates for Texas governor has found Greg Abbott to be the favorite among registered voters.
The poll of 1,200 registered voters was conducted by the University of Texas and Texas Tribune in October and released this month. The poll said it was done with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
It found that 46% of voters would vote for Abbott if the election were held today. Former Democratic congressman Beto O'Rourke, who has not announced his candidacy, came in second, receiving 37% of the vote. The two candidates are by far the favorites in their respective party primaries too.
But an increasing percentage of voters disapprove of Abbott's performance as governor, which points to a possible opening for O'Rourke. The poll found that 48% of voters disapprove of his job, while 43% approve.
Slightly more than a third of those polled had a favorable view of O'Rourke and Matthew McConaughey, who also has not announced a run for governor.
Half of voters said they had an unfavorable view of O'Rourke compared to just shy of a quarter (24%) who have the same view of McConaughey.
Almost a third of voters (29%) had no real opinion on the Oscar-award winning actor as a candidate compared to just 8% of voters on O'Rourke.
in a poll released in September by Quinnipiac University, 50% of registered voters said they didn't think O'Rourke would make a good governor compared with 49% who said the same of McConaughey.
That poll found that 51% of respondents also said Abbott shouldn't be reelected.
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