M.J. Hegar leads the 12-person Democratic field of U.S. Senate candidates, and she is the only candidate with double-digit support (22%), according to a new Univ. of Texas/Texas Tribune poll (PDF). The next six candidates were all within the poll’s margin of error of each other, led by Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez (9%), former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell (7%), former Houston council member Amanda Edwards (6%) and Sen. Royce West (6%).
Despite spending less than $15K combined, Annie Garcia (5%) and Sema Hernandez (5%) were the only other candidates to receive the support of at least one in 20 respondents.
Low name ID is a major factor. Less than a third of likely Democratic primary voters have heard of Hegar, which exceeds Bell (23%), West (19%), Tzintzún Ramirez (16%), Hernandez (16%), Edwards (11%) and Michael Cooper (10%).
The poll of 1,200 registered voters was in the field January 31-February 9 and has a stated margin of error for the Democratic trial ballot of ±4.09%.
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