Poll: Santorum way ahead of Romney, Gingrich and Paul among Texas Republicans

A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll released Monday morning shows Rick Santorum's support among Texas Republicans is almost equal to the combined support of his three leading rivals in the GOP primary.

Santorum drew 45 percent of the vote in the survey.  Newt Gingrich came in second with 18 percent support, followed by Mitt Romney at 16 percent and US Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, at 14 percent. 

The survey was conducted online Feb. 8-15 from a dataset of 800 Texas voters and then weighted to better match the overall Texas population. The presidential preference portion of the poll had a margin of error of 5.1 percentage points.  

The results suggest a major reshuffling of the presidential race in Texas in light of Gov. Rick Perry's exit from the race and Santorum's recent nationwide surge. Last month, a poll of Texas Republican primary voters from Public Policy Polling found Romney leading with 24 percent support followed closely by Gingrich at 23 percent and Perry at 18 percent. Santorum came in fourth at 15 percent followed by Paul at 12 percent.

This would be better news for Santorum if the Texas primary were taking place soon. It was originally scheduled for early March but has since been pushed back multiple times due to legal disptues over political maps. A federal judge recently said the primary would likely take place on May 29 but warned it could end up even later.

Santorum will be in North Texas this Thursday. He is scheduled to attend a Westlake fundraiser for the Red, White and Blue Fund, a Super PAC supporting his presidential campaign.

-Aman Batheja

Comments

[Eric Pinola]

He has my vote. Go Texas Vote OBUMMER OUT!

[Al]

Too bad Santorum is unelectable.

[Gangsta Obama]

Great man, just what this country needs to overturn the damage created by Gangsta O.

[someguy99]

I've always been told by conservatives that you can't trust the polls...so...i take this with as much of a grain of salt as they do with polls showing a growing popularity for Obama.

[peter]

He is crapped! no one even can close to the great president of united state of America Obama. God bless him, he lift the country from all the messed from GOP.

[William]

Ron Paul is the ONLY one who can beat Obama and create the political environment necessary to avoid us becoming Greece West.

[Chris]

Here's my problem with Santorum specifically, and also Republicans as a whole. I don't want our government telling me what I can or cannot do in the privacy of my own home or bedroom. Your religion is not necessarily mine, and I don't want you dictating the terms of your religion to me through the law. That is why I will NEVER vote for Santorum. And until the Republicans are no longer owned by evangelicals, I won't vote for them either. (And I think we all know the true meaning of "Santorum". If you don't, then google it.)

[McB]

Jeez, we Texans are really as stupid as others say we are. I didn't believe it, but it's true.

If Santorum is that far ahead, we are just nuts. I love Texas, but maybe it's time to move to a saner State, with a better class of people.

[ModernMan]

Santorum is even farther ahead among Texas Democrats. Only a tiny minority of voters in the general election will want to turn back the clock to the 14th Century. Not only will a Santorum nomination guarantee Obama's reelection, it will finally shut up the evangelicals for all time. I'm voting for him!

[TXKEith]

Whenever I see the Republican Establishment and fake conservatives wringing their hands over a Santorum surge, I know how good a thing it is and how viable a candidate he really is.

Go all the way Rick! I'm tripling my donation to your campaign.

[ruger1776]

Are you people out of your minds?? This guy has ZERO chance against Obama in a general election. The only people he can pull are the far right evangelicals. Only one candidate can pull support from all sides of the political spectrum and that is Ron Paul. If you want Obama in office another 4 years, vote for Rick Santorum. This guy is a poor excuse for a conservative and a Christian.

[Al]

Paul is the only candidate that can get votes from both parties. He is the only one that want's to leave you alone and not bury you in regulations and taxes.

[Jess]

This is INSANE! Its good to know that there is still a lot of time until the primary takes place, but this poll is a bit unsettling. Why would anyone in there right mind give Mr. Santorum a shot absolutely baffles me. This man is a big government RINO and we are acting like he is the TRUE conservative? What is conservative about increasing the federal deficit and using government to instill social conservative principles in every matter? Thats conservatism?

Its really interesting to see these so called (as they like to call themselves) "small government" phony supporters come out of no where, scream and yell, and then disappear. They want to say they represent the tea party while they have no understanding of how and why the tea party was originally created and what it stood for.

I have not seen any gleeful, shrieking Gingrich supporters on the boards for quite sometime now. I predict that this Santorum fellow is just another flash in the pan candidate like Gingrich. I truly hope.

I WILL BE EMBARRASSED AS A TEXAN IF THIS GREAT STATE VOTES FOR THAT MAN! There is nothing worse than a phony that wants to focus on social conservative issues that also has a a real taste for foreign entanglements. Those two issues put together are probably worse than voting for a liberal democrat. This man is BUSH 2.0!

PLEASE TEXAS!!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!

[JC rules]

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GO RICK GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

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