As they have done in other states they've polled, the folks at Public Policy Polling questioned registered Republican voters (294 of them with a margin of error of 5.7 points) between April 10th and 13th, to find out what their preference was right now for a 2016 Republican presidential nominee.
The right-wing extremist senator, Ted Cruz, turned out to be the favorite -- eclipsing Jeb Bush by 11 points, and three others by 15 points (Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Rick Perry). After that there is another 5 point drop to Paul Ryan and Chris Christie (putting them 20 points behind Cruz. One might be tempted to label Cruz as the favorite now, but this is a home state phenomena that he has not been able to replicate in other states. So the Republicans are still without a real favorite.
But while Cruz is the clear favorite among Texas Republicans (getting the support of one out of four), he doesn't do real well when all Texans are asked if he should run for president. A majority of 54% don't want him to run. But that's better than Rick Perry does. About 66% of Texans say Perry should not run (including a majority of Republicans). Maybe they're afraid he'll embarrass them again like he did in 2012.
