A freshman Republican House lawmaker’s political future rests on a knife’s edge as he seeks reelection in Texas.
Rep. Chip Roy and Democratic challenger Wendy Davis are separated by a single percentage point, according to an internal poll for Davis’s campaign. Roy has 46% support among respondents to Davis’s 45%, though Davis’s support is more intense, the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group study found.
Roy, a former investment banker, assistant state attorney general, and political aide, has represented a pocket of central Texas that runs north of San Antonio to Austin since 2019. After clinching his inaugural race by roughly 2.5 points, the Cook Political Report rates Texas’s 21st Congressional District as a Republican “toss up” at this stage in the 2020 cycle.
President Trump dominated in the Texas district in 2016, beating then-Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by 10 points, 52.5% to 42.5%. Four years later, the White House incumbent trails presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by 3 points, 50% to 47%, as the pair tousle for the state’s 38 electoral votes.
Polling suggests Texas Democrats are close to a slate of wins when it comes to Nov. 3’s general elections, though they need to defend the 7th, 23rd, and 32nd districts. Other Republican “toss ups” include open contests in the 22nd and 24th districts, as well as a lean Republican competition in the 10th District. Democrats are also hoping to flip Texas’s own House of Representatives.
Davis’s Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group poll was conducted among 550 likely voters in Texas’s 21st Congressional District general election between July 14 and 17 via landlines and cellphones. The group’s findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.25 points.
