Sean Teare leads incumbent Kim Ogg in Harris County DA's primary race, new poll says

Longtime Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg is lagging behind her challenger Sean Teare by 38 percentage points in the March Democratic primary, per a new University of Houston poll obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: Incumbent Ogg is seeking a third term, but she's at odds with her party , the Texas Tribune reported.

What's happening: The county Democratic Party passed a resolution admonishing Ogg in December, accusing her of abusing her power, siding with Republicans, and failing to deliver on the party's criminal justice reform priorities.

• Several local Democrats have endorsed former prosecutor Teare, Ogg's former employee.

What they found: In the DA race, 59% of likely Democratic primary voters intended to vote for Teare, the poll found, compared with 21% for Ogg and 20% still undecided.

• UH's Hobby School of Public Affairs surveyed 1,400 Harris County likely Democratic primary voters in February. The margin of error was 2.5%.

The intrigue: Among poll respondents, 42% of likely voters said they would never vote for Ogg, while just 4% indicated they would never vote for her challenger.

• 61% of likely voters had an unfavorable opinion of Ogg.

Meanwhile, in two other key local Democratic primaries, incumbents are leading, per the poll:

• 63% of likely voters said they intend to vote for incumbent Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, while 32% are still undecided.
• For county attorney, 41% of likely voters selected incumbent Christian Menefee, but 52% were undecided.

Of note: In the race to determine who will challenge Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, 66% of likely Harris County Democratic primary voters chose U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, followed by Roland Gutierrez (7%) and Mark Gonzalez (2%), with 22% undecided.

Be smart: Early voting opened this week and will run through March 1. Find Harris County sample ballots and voting centers here .

• Election Day is March 5.

Methodology: The UH poll surveyed 1,400 Harris County adult likely Democratic primary voters between Feb 7-15, and has a margin of error of ±2.5 points.

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