Joe Biden could beat Donald Trump in Texas in first Democrat victory in state since 1976, poll shows

Joe Biden has edged into the lead in Texas, according to a new opinion poll, raising hopes among Democrats that the party can turn the state blue for the first time since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

The poll by the Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas shows Mr Biden being backed by 48 per cent of likely voters, three points ahead of President Donald Trump on 45 per cent.

The state of 29 million people is the second most important in terms of the presidential election system, carrying 38 of the 538 electoral college votes that decides who wins — second only to California, which has 55 votes. Texas has long been out of reach for the Democrats and a win for Mr Biden, 77, would almost certainly kill the contest on election night in eight days.

The Biden campaign has been boosted by overwhelming numbers of early voters, with nearly 60 million already casting their ballots, amid polling indicating that more are swinging behind the Democrat than Mr Trump. Over seven million of those have been cast in Texas — nearly 43 per cent of all registered voters in the state. Mr Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, is heading to Texas on Friday as the race to top the ballot there intensifies.

Speaking at a virtual campaign event, Mr Biden appeared to confuse Mr Trump with George W Bush. In a gaffe quickly seized on by Republicans, he stumbled over his words as he said the Democrat campaign was fighting against “four more years of George”. His wife Jill then appeared to quietly correct him under her breath.

Trailing in the national polls, Mr Trump plans to intensify an already breakneck travel schedule in the final full week of the campaign, overlooking a surge of coronavirus cases in the US and a fresh outbreak at the White House.

He is expected to hit nearly a dozen states in his last-ditch effort to recover ground from Mr Biden, holding 11 rallies in the final 48 hours alone. He aims to visit the upper Midwestern states bearing the brunt of the virus surge.

“We want normal life to resume,” Mr Trump said yesterday. “We just want normal life.” Meanwhile, vice-president Mike Pence was planning to stick to his own aggressive campaigning schedule despite being deemed a “close contact” of his chief-of-staff, Marc Short, who tested positive for the virus.

The divergent approaches of the Trump and Biden campaigns to the virus was thrown back into the spotlight as White House chief-of-staff Mark Meadows said: “We’re not going to control the pandemic.” Pressed to explain why it cannot be reined in, he told CNN’s State Of The Union: “Because it is a contagious virus just like the flu.” Mr Biden said the Trump administration was waving “the white flag of defeat” in the face of the virus.

Read more

Trump intensifies fracking assault on Biden at Pennsylvania rallies

US President Donald Trump casts early vote for 'a guy named Trump'

US election odds: Biden holds onto lead against Trump after debate