Former Texas Rep. Robert Francis O’Rourke (D-TX) is struggling to gain full support from Democrats in his state, with the majority of likely Democrat voters choosing Joe Biden (D) over the Texas native, according to a Texas Lyceum poll released Thursday.
The poll – taken August 16-25, 2019, among 1,200 Texas adults – found that 24 percent of likely Texas Democrat voters support Biden. O’Rourke placed second, garnering 18 percent support– a five-point drop from last month’s results.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) came just three points behind O’Rourke with 15 percent support, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) with 13 percent support. Julián Castro (D) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) found themselves tied for a distant fifth place with just four percent support. The overall margin of error is +/-2.83 percent and +/- 5 percent for the Democrat voters surveyed.
O’Rourke’s five-point drop comes in the wake of his increased rhetoric on gun control following the shootings in his state. O’Rourke teamed up with gun control group Moms Demand Action to sell “This is f*cked up” shirts following the shooting in the Midland-Odessa region of Texas, which left seven dead and at least 22 injured:
This week, O’Rourke pledged to strip Americans of their AR-15s and AK-47s.
“I want to be clear: That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” O’Rourke stated. “Americans who own AR-15s and AK-47s will have to sell their assault weapons. All of them”:
The current Real Clear Politics average shows Biden leading O’Rourke in the Lone Star state 26.4 percent to O’Rourke’s 17 percent.