For as unpopular as President Joe Biden is among Texans, Vice President Kamala Harris has even fewer fans.
Harris, who is being floated as Biden’s potential replacement at the top of the Democratic ticket amid calls for the president to step aside, has a 56% unfavorability rating among likely voters in Texas, according to a recent poll by the University of Houston /Texas Southern University.
That’s worse than Biden’s unfavorability rating of 55% and Trump’s rating of 49%.
The poll of likely voters was conducted from June 20 to July 1, meaning many Texans were surveyed before the June 27 presidential debate which sparked calls from high profile Democrats and donors for the president to withdraw over concerns about his health and stamina.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the Biden administration has been testing Harris in a head to head against Trump as they weigh the path forward.
But the polling suggests Harris has a long road to winning over voters in Texas, which went strongly for Trump in 2020. However, more recent national polling shows Harris surging ahead of Biden against former president Donald Trump.
Senior Executive Director of Hobby School of Public Affairs Renée Cross, who helped conduct the poll, said she doesn’t think there would be a dramatic shift in opinions among Biden and Harris among Texans after the debate.
“Most of the [Texas] Democrats, while they may have to hold their nose, they're still supporting Biden just because they don't like the other guy,” Cross said.
Cross added that Harris might have seen a small bump in her favorability, but she won’t “bet on it.”
Harris's biggest opportunity to increase her favorability in the state would be to concentrate outreach with voters of color and younger voters, Cross said.
When broken down by demographics, Harris has a slightly higher approval rating — 81%— among Black voters than Biden’s approval rating of 79%.
Harris has recently been stumping to shore up support for their ticket with voters of color. She was in Dallas for a stump speech Wednesday as the keynote speaker for Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically black sorority of which she is a member, but didn’t answer any press questions after the event.
Harris is dealing with flak from both sides, Cross said. Republicans dislike her for being a Democrat, and more progressive Democrats dislike her for her tough-on-crime approach as a prosecutor in California.
She has seen a slight increase in popularity since the last poll conducted by the University of Houston /Texas Southern University in January, when her favorability rating among voters was 36%, compared to her latest favorability of 42%.
Generationally, Biden's only lead among Texans is with millennials who prefer him to Trump by six percentage points. Trump has a three-point lead among Gen Z voters, according to the polling.
A theoretical Harris presidential campaign could also help Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas in his bid for the senate, said Josh Blank, director of research for the Texas Politics Project.
“It might create less headaches for Allred, who has already made efforts to distance himself from Biden,” Blank said.
The latest poll also shows Allred within striking distance of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
Cruz, who is seeking a third term, is leading with support from 47% of likely voters, while Allred has 44%. With 6% of voters being undecided; 3% plan to vote for the Libertarian candidate Ted Brown.
A UT-Austin poll last month showed Allred behind by double digits.
Texas Democrats have also expressed worry about how Biden's debate performance would affect down-ballot races. Blank said that Harris could see an increase in her favorability with Texas Democrats because she is being compared to an unpopular Biden and is not in a crowded field like in the 2020 Democratic primaries.
Last week, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin became the first Democratic member of Congress to call for Biden to withdraw from the ticket after the debate. Earlier this week, Biden sent a letter to congressional Democrats saying he is firmly committed to staying in the race. But Democrats' calls to drop out haven’t stopped.
Biden is speaking at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin next week. He will also sit down for another one-on-one interview with NBC in Austin to air Monday night.
Disclosure: New York Times and University of Houston have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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