Texas Governor Greg Abbott is facing a potential defeat in the Republican gubernatorial primary, according to a new poll carried out for one his GOP opponents.
A Paradigm Partners poll published on Tuesday shows Abbott with just 32.52 percent support among likely Republican primary voters in the state, behind former Texas GOP chair Allen West on 38.36 percent.
The poll was conducted for West's campaign and differs starkly from other polls published late last year that appeared to show the Republican primary race was uncompetitive.
The Paradigm Partners poll was conducted among 1,486 likely Republican primary voters on January 9, 2022 and has a margin of error of +/-2.54 percent.
The survey showed Abbott's other challengers well behind him and West, with third place Ricky Lynn Perry recording 12.06 percent support.
Ricky Lynn Perry is not former Texas governor and energy secretary Rick Perry, but shares a similar name.
Former Texas state senator Don Huffines, who has been highly critical of Abbott, had 5.03 percent support in the Paradigm Partners poll.
West issued a statement about the new poll on his campaign website, saying: "Support for Governor Abbott slid to roughly a third from a high of 56 percent in October of last year."
This appears to be a reference to a poll from University of Texas at Austin and The Texas Tribune conducted from October 21 to 31, showing Abbott with 56 percent in the GOP primary and West in second place with just 13 percent support.
"In a crowded field, the obvious choice for those who hope to see Governor Abbot unseated by a 'Texas First' conservative outsider is Lt. Col. Allen West," the West campaign's statement said.
"Texas deserves true conservative leadership that will end the invasion at the border, stop the mutilation of children at the altar of gender dysphoria, and end the sex slavery crisis that is engulfing every part of Texas from our quiet border towns to the sprawls of Dallas and Houston.
"The working people of Texas and their children deserve to be safe, own their own home by transitioning from the Marxist property tax system, and be free from tyrannical overreach whether it comes from Washington, D.C. or Austin, TX," the statement said.
A poll from the University of Texas at Tyler and The Dallas Morning News conducted from November 9 to 16 showed Abbott with 65 percent support in the primary and West with just six percent.
Abbott is seeking a third time as Texas governor and is widely expected to face Democrat and former U.S. Representative Beto O'Rourke in November.
West had served as a member of the House of Representatives for Florida's 22nd congressional district from 2011 to 2013 and later relocated to Texas, where he was elected chair of the Republican Party of Texas in 2020.
He resigned from that position on June 4, 2021 and subsequently announced a bid for governor.
If the polling is borne out, it could lead to a major political upset for Texas Republicans in a state that has long been deep red.
Newsweek has asked Greg Abbott's campaign for comment.
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About the writer
Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more
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