Clarification: Donald Trump and his family have visited Texas a total of 9 times in 2019. Two of those visits were done by president’s children, not the president himself.
Polling continues to show President Trump’s weakness in the Lone Star State.
Only 43 percent of Texas voters approve of the president’s overall job performance, according to a University of Texas-Tyler poll released Monday. 49 percent disapprove.
The same poll also shows an roughly even split on impeachment, with 45 percent of Texans for impeachment and 47 percent against.
The poll, among others, is the latest indication of trouble for Trump in Texas, a 2020 swing state.
It’s no surprise then he has visited Texas at least eight times this year and poured more money into the state’s digital ad game than any other state. You don’t pour resources into a state that’s reliably in your column.
The president is set to visit Texas — this time Austin— this Wednesday to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook. The company has said it plans on making its new Mac Pro computers in Austin.
Is Texas next?
Monday’s poll isn’t the only survey showing Trump suffering in the Lone Star State. A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll earlier this month found 46 percent of Texans said they “definitely won’t” vote for Trump in 2020. But polling is the least of Trump’s worries.
The president has been facing real defeats on the ground that have brought into question just how much influence the embattled leader has left.
Most recently, the president’s endorsed candidate in the Lousiana gubernatorial race was defeated by an incumbent Democrat by 2.6 percentage points. “You got to give me a big win, please, O.K.,” Trump had told a MAGA crowd prior to the race in Bossier City, La.
On election day a few weeks ago Trump was dealt another defeat again after backing the losing Kentucky candidate for governor.
According to the New York Times, Democratic candidates for governor in both Kentucky and Louisiana won by energizing “a combination of African-Americans and moderate whites in and around the urban centers. The results in Kentucky and Louisiana are particularly ominous for the president, in part because they indicate that his suburban problem extends to traditionally conservative Southern states.”
Photo: Loren Elliott/Getty Image
