Presidential candidate Joe Biden began dolling out his Texas endorsements this week, backing four Democratic candidates running for Congress.
They include Gina Ortiz Jones in Texas’ 23rd congressional district, Wendy Davis in TX-21, Sri Preston Kulkarni in TX-22, and Candace Valenzuela in TX-24.
Polling has yet to be released for most of those races with the exception of Wendy Davis. An August-September poll shows Davis and GOP incumbent Rep. Chip Roy about even, 47 to 48 percent.
All four congressional races are among the most likely to flip in 2020; three of them feature open districts held by retiring Republicans where past Democratic candidates have shaved off numbers from Republican margins since 2016.
The endorsements come as Biden has been ramping up his presence in the Lone Star State, quickly becoming seen as the largest battleground state in 2020. This week, the Biden campaign staffed up added 13 more members to its team. On Wednesday, the Biden campaign is hosting a press call with the Texas Democratic Party over the impact of COVID-19 in South Texas.
Poling between Biden and President Trump shows it could be anyone’s race in Texas; aggregate polling by RealClearPolitics has Trump leading by four percentage points, almost within the three percent margin of error in most polls.
Photo: Daniel Carde/Getty Images
Fernando covers Texas politics and government at the Texas Signal. Before joining the Signal, Fernando spent two years at the Houston Chronicle and previously interned at Houston’s NPR station News 88.7. He is a graduate of the University of Houston, Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, and enjoys reading, highlighting things, and arguing on social media. You can follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93 or email at fernando@texassignalarchive.com
