Texas Poll Boosts Sports Betting Advocates' Hopes

Texas's lieutenant governor controls which bills reach the state Senate floor, and Patrick has never allowed a sports betting bill to get a vote during his time in office. 

A House bill from Rep. Sam Harless died in 2025 after Patrick made clear he would not take it up in the Senate, and a companion Senate measure, SJR 65, met the same fate. 

With Texas not having elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994, betting advocates had largely written off the legislature as a path to legal sports betting while Patrick held his seat.

Patrick has never won re-election by less than five points, and running mate Governor Greg Abbott has not won by less than 11, but both are now inside the margin of error in the same poll, which also shows Democrat Gina Hinojosa leading Abbott 49% to 48% for governor. 

Analysts point to Senate candidate James Talarico's strong showing against Republican Ken Paxton, the poll's only statewide Democrat to break 50% support, as a factor that could lift turnout for Goodwin and Hinojosa further down the ballot. 

Audio of Paxton published by Rolling Stone, in which he reportedly said Abbott is "struggling" and that Texas Republicans will likely lose legislative seats this cycle, has added to the sense that the race has tightened.

Early voting begins October 19 ahead of the November 3 election, widely expected to be one of the closest in Texas in decades. 

Even a win for Goodwin would not guarantee quick movement on sports betting, since the Texas legislature meets only every two years and Patrick would remain in office until Goodwin was sworn in. 

But it would remove, for the first time in years, the single biggest procedural obstacle that has kept betting bills from ever reaching a Senate vote, giving advocates a real opening in the 2027 session regardless of how the governor's race itself turns out.