Texas voters split on top races, oppose data centers and Flock-style cameras

AUSTIN, Texas - A majority of voters say Texas is a reliably Republican state despite recent polling showing a virtual toss-up in the U.S. Senate race and a tight race for governor.

A new poll from Overton Insights shows a less than 1% margin between Republican Ken Paxton (43.4%) and Democrat James Talarico (44%) in the race to become the next senator from Texas. When factoring in those leaning toward one candidate or the other, the race becomes a tie.

What they're saying:

"It is pretty clear the Texas Senate race is going to come down to the wire. Despite trailing slightly, this is actually a really good poll for Ken Paxton compared to recent polling, showing him well within the margin of error and tied when leaners are included," Overton Poll Director Mark Cunningham said.

Overton polled 1,167 likely voters in Texas between Aug. 24 and Aug. 26 with a 2.9% margin of error. The poll was sponsored by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank. Overton Insights is a polling firm launched by the libertarian Libertas Network.

Governor's race remains close

By the numbers:

The poll also asked voters about the race for governor.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott (46.9%) held a 1.1% lead over Democrat Gina Hinojosa (45.8%). Around 7.3% of voters were undecided. 

When asked which candidate likely voters leaned toward, Abbott expanded his lead over Hinojosa, 58.5% to 41.5%.

Hinojosa celebrated the poll as the latest in a string of polls that show a close race in November.

What they're saying:

"Our campaign is only getting stronger as more voters get to know me. I am running to secure the American Dream in Texas by saving our public schools and putting money in your pocket with an economy built for the people, not billionaires," Hinojosa said. "Greg Abbott is asking for four more years to fix the problems he built. He took a billion dollars out of our public schools, skyrocketed the cost of everything, let data centers take our water and our power without paying their own way, and put cameras up to watch Texans instead of watching the donors who are picking their pockets. Twelve years of corrupt deals, and Texans paid for every one of them. That ends in November when we defeat Greg Abbott."

Cunningham believes the closeness of the race is a trickle-down effect from national backlash against Republicans.

What they're saying:

"While the Senate race was expected to be close because of the quality of both candidates, the Governor’s race being within the margin of error is one of the more surprising results in the poll," Cunningham said. "Abbott is a fairly popular Republican governor, but it’s clear that the national backlash against Republicans and Trump has brought Abbott down as well."

Texans have strong feelings about data centers and license plate reader cameras

Voters were asked about two hot topics in today's political landscape: data centers and license plate reader cameras and were overwhelmingly against both.

The poll asked voters if they supported a local data center ban, and 54.7% of voters said they supported a ban, while 37.% said they were against a ban. The numbers were similar when asked if they would support or oppose new data centers if certain safeguards were in place. Again, 54.2% of voters were against data centers, while 37.9% supported data centers.

Automatic license plate readers had even less support from voters, with only 28.1% supporting ALPRs such as Flock.

The sentiment comes as more cities across the state ditch their contracts with Flock and Abbott announced a pause of state grants to fund new cameras.

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