(Adnkronos) – Less than three weeks before the midterm elections, two polls confirm the neck-and-neck race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton, with the Democratic Senate candidate slightly ahead. The Marist College poll shows that 47% of likely Texas voters support Talarico, compared to 45% who side with Paxton. Meanwhile, the gap between the two widens slightly to three points in the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll, with the Democrat at 50% and the Republican at 47%.
However, this is too narrow a margin not to consider the duel a neck-and-neck race, an important and sensational result in any case, given that Texas has been considered a Republican stronghold for decades, and Talarico’s eventual victory would be the first for a Democrat since 1994. However, there is a sign in the Marist College poll that could worry the Democrat: despite being slightly ahead in the poll, the number of voters who have a negative opinion of him is higher, at 49%, than those who have a positive opinion, at 43%.
So far, the 37-year-old state representative, a former middle school teacher and former Presbyterian seminarian, has always had a majority of positive opinions, and the reversal could indicate that the enormous amount of money Republicans are investing in this Senate duel, which they cannot afford to lose, is starting to bring his numbers down. It must be considered, however, that the judgment on Paxton is much harsher: the controversial attorney general, whom his own party has impeached for corruption, is judged negatively by 56% of voters and positively by only 34%.
