Nearly six in ten likely Republican primary voters in Texas back former President Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, while he dominates Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up, per a poll.
In the University of Houston/Texas Southern University poll conducted from October 6-18, Trump takes 58 percent of the response, placing him 44 points ahead of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), his nearest competitor, at 14 percent.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis listens during a campaign event at the Permian Deep Rock Oil Company site on September 20, 2023, in Midland, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) follows with six percent of the response. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy registers at three percent, as does former Vice President Mike Pence, who dropped out of the race on Saturday.
From there, Former Chris Christie (R-NJ) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) tie at two percent, while Ryan Binkley and former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) each register at one percent. Just under one in ten voters are undecided.
In a hypothetical head-to-head match-up between Trump and DeSantis, Trump’s support grows to 66 percent while DeSantis climbs to 25 percent. Four percent of respondents would not vote, and five percent are undecided.
Former President Donald Trump walks across the tarmac as he arrives to speak at a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport Saturday, March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas.(Nathan Howard, File/AP)
Trump draws support from those who initially chose Ramaswamy, Pence, or Scott in this scenario. Nearly 70 percent of Ramaswamy backers, 60 percent of Pence supporters, and 56 percent of Scott enthusiasts flock to Trump in a two-man race with DeSantis. Conversely, DeSantis pulls 66 percent of Haley’s support and 65 percent of Christie’s.
Moreover, the majority of respondents in each sub-demographic, ranging from sex to race to education, break for Trump over DeSantis in the hypothetical race. Some of Trump’s largest leads in this regard are among Latinos, those with a “very conservative” ideology, Millenials, and Generation Z.
Jen Salinas, Vice President of Latinos 4 Trump, takes photos with the group’s supporters after a meetup in San Antonio, Texas, on Friday, May 14, 2021. (Matthew Busch for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Nearly four in five Latinos would support Trump over DeSantis. Similarly, 77 percent of those who are staunchly conservative would back Trump, as would 76 percent of likely Millennial and Generation Z GOP primary voters.
The University of Houston and Texas Southern University sampled 524 likely Republican primary voters, and the credibility interval registers at plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.
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