Poll: Abbott Leads Davis by 6 Points in Texas Governor Race

Texas Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott leads Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis 40 percent to 34 percent among registered voters in their likely face off for governor next year, according to a poll from the University of Texas/Texas Tribune.

The poll found 25 percent of voters are undecided.

The survey was conducted Oct. 18-27 among 1,200 voters. It has a 3.3-percentage-point margin of error.

Two earlier polls showed Abbott with an 8 point lead — one conducted by Public Policy Polling June 28-July 1 and one conducted by Texas Lyceum Sept. 6-20.

"What you’ve got is a race in which, for the first time in a long time, the Democrat is as well-known as the Republican at the outset of the race," Daron Shaw, co-director of the University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, said in a statement.

But Jim Henson, another poll co-director said in a statement, "These numbers are not evidence that the underlying fundamentals are changing in Texas. We have not seen a big change in party identification, and we don’t see any large-scale shifts in the underlying attitudes that are forming."

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