AUSTIN (Nexstar) – U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, may have just entered the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Monday, but according to a new poll she’s already the favorite to win.
The Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey center at Texas Southern University polled 1,600 likely Texas Democratic Primary voters between Dec. 9 and Dec. 11, releasing their results on Friday morning. Among those responses, 51% of respondents indicated support for Jasmine Crockett, while 43% showed support for State Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock.
The pollsters said that the results have a margin of error of +/- 2.45%.
Meet the candidates running to be the next U.S. Senator from Texas: James Talarico
In a statement on Friday morning, Crockett said she was humbled by the results of the poll after only being officially in the race for four days. She said she will continue to share a message to Texans about how to make a more affordable life. She also believes the poll shows she is the best chance to win a general election against a Republican.
“The Texas Southern poll illustrates that voters know what I know: that I’m in the best position to mobilize voters who’ve been overlooked, ignored, and excluded,” Crockett said in a statement. “Over half of democratic voters agree that I am the candidate who will be most successful in getting infrequent voters to show up en masse. Getting those voters to show up and make their voices heard is the only way for a Democrat to win in Texas.”
You can read the full report below:
While Crockett leads by eight points among all likely Democratic primary voters, she excels in three major demographics. Crockett leads Talarico amongst women 57%-36%, amongst those 55 or older 59%-34% and among black voters 89%-8%.
Conversely, Talarico leads with white voters 53%-40%, with men 52%-42% and with Latino voters 51%-41%. His strongest demographic is young voters, leading 63%-34% among eligible voters under the age of 34.
According to the poll, Talarico lags behind Crockett heavily in name recognition, with 21% of likely Democratic primary voters saying they don’t know enough to have a favorable or unfavorable opinion about him. On the other hand, the outspoken U.S. congresswoman only has 6% of voters who say they don’t know enough.
A spokesman for Talarico’s campaign released a statement on Friday saying, “While many voters are still learning about James, he starts out very competitive. Polling consistently shows that the more people get to know James, the more they support him. As voters hear his message of taking on the billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians, James will earn their support and win.”
Gov. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick push conflicting plans to cut property taxes
Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. and Patrick are each touting plans to further cut property taxes in Texas. But they’re taking distinctly different approaches to how to lower school property taxes.
On Tuesday, Patrick revealed a new plan to reduce the tax burden for Texas homeowners by expanding a recently approved homestead exemption addition for those over the age of 65.
“We are going to take the senior homestead exemption where your taxes are frozen and your values are frozen down to 55,” Patrick told reporters at a news conference at the State Capitol.
Patrick calls his proposal Operation Double Nickel. In conjunction with an extra $40,000 homestead exemption for all homeowners, Patrick believes this is the most responsible way forward to fund schools while reducing property taxes.
“From 65 to 55 will cost our budget about $1.3 billion. That is very doable,” Patrick said.
Patrick said the state’s growth is fueling higher tax revenue, which he believes should go back to Texans in the form of tax cuts. That’s a message Governor Greg Abbott has also been emphasizing on the campaign trail.
“The Texas budget surplus exceeds $11 billion a year,” Abbott told an audience in Weslaco, one day after Patrick’s announcement.
“When we get that budget surplus, the first thing we should do with it and the only thing we should do with it is return it to you, the people,” Abbott said.
The Governor has been touting his five-point plan to cut property taxes. A key part of his plan calls for eliminating school property taxes altogether.
“We can and we must completely abolish the school district property tax for homeowners and homestead owners,” Abbott said at the event in Weslaco.
That part of Abbott’s plan drew questions from Lt. Gov. Patrick.
“Where will the money come to run any kind of government except sales tax?” he asked during Tuesday’s news conference.
Patrick said he believed that ending school property taxes would lead to a sharp increase in the sales tax.
“You’d have to go from eight and a quarter cents to 14 or 15 cents. You’d have to double the sales tax,” Patrick told reporters.
While they differ on the details, both leaders say they’re ready to work together to give Texans tax relief.
“I applaud the governor for trying to get property taxes down low. We can agree or disagree on some things,” Patrick said.
Builders Texas seeks citizen-based solutions to overcome ‘us vs. them’ politics
In an increasingly polarized political environment, the Builders Movement, a nonprofit political advocacy organization, is seeking to bring people from different backgrounds and political beliefs together to find common ground and policy solutions.
Executive Director Stacey Blakely said the organization’s expansion into Texas comes at a time when polls show Americans want productive conversation instead of partisan politics.
“It’s exhausting. (Americans) are tired of the chaos. They want solutions, and the demonizing of others, the ‘us vs. them,’ there’s a real fatigue around that,” Blakely explained.
As the organization expands into Texas, Builders is seeking success by employing what they call Citizen Solutions. Blakely defined it as “giving citizens a voice in policy making, identifying what is it that they care about, and how they think that we should solve these problems.”
Blakely said Builders will start its work in Texas with a focus on health care. She noted that healthcare consistently ranks as one of Texans’ top issues. Concerns about affordability, medical debt and access in rural communities surfaced repeatedly both in in-person citizen solution meetings and through Ima, an online AI powered tool that Builders utilizes to collect people’s stories.
Builders vision is to take the ideas gathered from Texans and work with a panel of policy and industry experts to turn them into proposals that can realistically be introduced at the Capitol. After that, Blakely said the goal is to hand the proposals back to citizens so they can meet with lawmakers, attend hearings and advocate for the legislation themselves.
“The goal here isn’t just to say, ‘here are some nice ideas,’” she said. “It’s to have real change driven by Texans.”
‘What do we do?’ 911 calls reveal camp’s repeated pleas for rescue during July 4 floods
Calls from panicked camps along the Guadalupe River, where hundreds of young children were visiting, were among the 911 calls from the deadly July 4th floods released on Friday.
Just before 4 a.m., as the Guadalupe River rose above 20 feet on Independence Day, one caller from Camp Mystic told dispatchers she was stranded on a hill and could not reach the main office.
“We are disconnected from the main camp by a bridge, and we can’t get in contact with our main office,” the caller told dispatchers. “We are all getting out of all the cabins, but some of the cabins are filling up with water.”
In another call around 7 a.m. on July 4th, a caller who identified themselves as one of the directors at Camp Mystic told the Kerr County dispatcher they needed search and rescue because they were “missing as many as 20-40 people.” In the call audio, the dispatcher transferred the caller to the Sheriff’s Department.
The release of the 911 calls comes three months to the day after Governor Greg Abbott signed new camp safety measures into law, including new evacuation requirements and requirements that camps not house campers in cabins located in flood plains.
At least 20 families are currently suing Camp Mystic, alleging the owners and operators of the camp could have prevented the deaths of 27 campers and counselors if the all-girls Christian camp had moved the girls to higher ground earlier on July 4th and not instructed them to stay in their cabins.
“The release of the recordings is a painful reminder to our community of the catastrophic flood of July 4,” a Camp Mystic spokesperson said to KXAN in an emailed statement. “We continue to pray for all those affected by this disaster.”
In November, camp officials told KXAN the floodwaters exceeded those of previous floods and noted that no adequate warning system existed in the area.
Heaven’s 27, an organization representing the families of the Camp Mystic victims, said the families would not be commenting on the release of the 911 calls.
20 families, including Austin parents, now suing Camp Mystic over July 4 deaths
Minutes down the road from Camp Mystic, as the river reached its highest levels around 4:30 a.m., dispatchers were also receiving calls from Camp La Junta, which was also desperately seeking help for the hundreds of young campers there.
“We are totally flooded. We have cabins that are starting to fill up. What do we do?” the caller asked dispatchers.
Dispatchers told the caller to get the children to higher ground and to wait for rescue teams to reach them.
“Just when you get there, go ahead and start doing a head count. Make sure that you have everybody,” the dispatcher said. “We do have a strike team heading that way with boats. It’s just going to take them a minute because it’s all of Highway 39.”
911 audio shows people at Camp La Junta calling again, around 4:40 a.m., asking when rescue teams would arrive.
“I do not have an ETA. Unfortunately, the entire city is impacted,” the dispatcher said.
Texas youth camps warn of closures over new safety laws
Despite the catastrophic flooding, in an Instagram post on July 17, Camp La Junta’s operators said that every camper, counselor, and staff member made it home safely.
“Our counselors — many of them former campers — acted with extraordinary courage, walking boys and guiding them to safety without hesitation. Their actions reflect the very best of Camp La Junta,” the camp said in a statement.
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