AUSTIN — Texas Republicans are on edge as polls show President Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden running neck and neck in the Lone Star State with less than five months to go before Election Day.

Most GOP operatives in the state still view Trump as the odds-on favorite to carry Texas and its 38 Electoral College votes in November. But they’re increasingly open to the outside possibility that Texas could go blue in the presidential race for the first time since 1976.

The president’s margins in Texas will matter, and Republicans fear that a close race at the top of the ticket might wipe them out in down ballot races.

Five House Republicans from the Texas delegation are retiring at the end of the year and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates three of those as either toss-ups or leaning Democratic.


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