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CNN poll: Texans leaning toward McCain in November

  • Story Highlights
  • 52 percent would vote for John McCain; 44 percent for Barack Obama
  • New York Sen. Hillary Clinton fares slightly worse, with 42 percent
  • Conservative third-party candidate could skew the results
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Texans appear poised to favor Republican front-runner Sen. John McCain over either of the Democratic candidates for president in the general election, a CNN/Opinion Research Poll released Thursday shows.

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A new poll shows Texans favor John McCain over Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in November.

Assuming McCain is the Republican presidential nominee, 52 percent of poll respondents said they would vote for him, compared with 44 percent for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the current Democratic front-runner.

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton fares slightly worse, with 42 percent, compared with 55 percent for McCain.

The results are not a surprise, said CNN polling director Keating Holland. "Texas is a pretty red state."

However, a conservative third-party candidate could skew the results -- and spell trouble for McCain, according to polling results. In that scenario, 19 percent of Texas poll respondents said they would vote for the third-party candidate, 37 percent for McCain and 41 percent for Obama.

If Clinton were the Democratic nominee, 23 percent said they would vote for the third-party candidate, 37 percent for McCain and 38 percent for Clinton.

Democratic Debate
Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama face each other in Austin, Texas
Thursday, 8 p.m. ET

Texas may be President Bush's home state, but a majority of poll respondents -- 55 percent -- said they disapprove of the job he is doing, giving Bush only a 41 percent approval rating.

And 61 percent of Texans said they oppose the war in Iraq. Meanwhile, 62 percent said they believe the U.S. economy is in a recession.

The poll interviewed 1,506 adults in Texas, including 1,247 registered voters, by telephone February 14-17. The sampling error on election questions is plus or minus 3 percentage points, and plus or minus 2.5 percentage points on questions dealing with Bush, Iraq and the economy. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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