Obama doing better in Texas than in 2008

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Public Polling Policy says

Obama ranking better against Perry

than he did against McCain in 2008

Published by Public Policy Polling, a new poll says 45% of Texas voters approve of the job Rick Perry is doing to 48% who disapprove. Not exactly the best numbers numbers but they do represent improvement from a June PPP poll of the state when Perry was at 43/52. The Texas governor is leading Obama by a smaller margin than John McCain won the state by in 2008.

Perry leads Obama in a head to head 51-44. Not very impressive numbers either, considering that John McCain defeated Obama by 12 points in the state, but they do at least represent an improvement for Perry since June when he actually trailed the President 47-45.

Obama’s approval rating in Texas is only 40% with 55% of voters disapproving of him. Most notable is that only 2% of Republicans give him good marks to 95% unhappy with his job performance- it’s hard to recover from that no matter how well you do with Democrats and independents in a state where the plurality of voters identify with the GOP.

There are a couple things keeping him from getting completely crushed in the state though. One is the Hispanic vote – he’s up 28 points on Perry, 35 on Romney and Paul, 43 on Bachmann, and 45 on Gingrich with those voters. In the case of Perry that margin is equal to what Obama won Hispanics by in Texas in 2008 and with the others it’s a wider spread. This is one state anyway where he is not slipping with Latino voters.

Obama winning Texas would be almost impossible . . . but there are positives

Regardless of how the number might improve for President Obama, Texas is a pipe dream for Democrats next year, especially given the overall national political climate. But the numbers here still show some things Republicans should be worried about – the fact that the voters who know Perry best don’t like him, and that Hispanics continue to support Obama overwhelmingly.