AUSTIN — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has roared into the lead in Texas in the Democratic presidential race, with Mike Bloomberg and Joe Biden locked in a battle for second, a new Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll has found.

Sanders, who trailed Biden among Hispanics in the same survey late last month, has vaulted to a 42% to 18% lead over the former vice president among Latino Democrats and Latino independents who lean Democratic, according to the poll. And unlike in previous UT Tyler polls, in which Sanders trailed Biden, he now leads among all Democrats, with 29%. Bloomberg has 21%, while Biden, in third, draws the support of 19%.

The margin of error for the latest poll, conducted Feb. 17-26, is plus or minus 4.05 percentage points for the 586 likely voters who indicated they would vote in the Democratic primary. For all 1,221 registered voters surveyed, it’s plus or minus 2.8 points.

In the earlier poll, Bloomberg was a distant fourth among Hispanics, with only 12% naming him as their first choice in the state’s Super Tuesday primary. But in the latest survey, the former New York City mayor is running second among Hispanics, with 20% support.

Among white voters, Sanders and Bloomberg overtook and now lead Biden. White Democrats and independents who lean Democratic broke 24% for Sanders, 23% for Bloomberg and 15% for Biden. In the earlier poll, Biden had 27%.

Biden’s once-towering lead among African American voters in Texas also shrank significantly, to 25%, from 50% in late January. Sanders (with 24% of the black vote), Bloomberg (17%) and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (5%) cut into Biden’s African American support. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s backing among blacks held steady, at 12%.

Results in early-voting states, though, could profoundly affect Texas’ Tuesday outcome — and apparently already have, said Mark Owens, a UT-Tyler political scientist who helped conduct the telephone and online survey.

Sanders’ domination of the Feb. 22 Nevada caucuses seemed to lift him in Texas, Owens said. After a Feb. 19 Democratic debate in Nevada, which occurred three days into The News and UT Tyler’s 10-day polling period, Sanders enjoyed a 9-percentage-point bump in his Texas support, he said.

That compared with a 9-point decline in Texas for Bloomberg, who started strong when pollsters went into the field on Feb. 17 but dipped after he took a pounding from fellow Democrats at his first debate, in Las Vegas.

Sanders’ test: Tuesday turnout

“It all comes down to the part we haven’t seen yet, the election day,” Owens said. “Bernie has more support. But they haven’t voted yet.”

By contrast, Bloomberg already has locked in his support, which like Biden’s runs strong among Texas Democrats 45 or older, Owens said. Many have cast their ballots already. While Sanders commands 48% support among Texans who are 18 to 29, many of them haven’t yet voted, he said.

“He needs a high turnout Tuesday because he’s counting on the support of voters who haven’t voted before,” Owens said. “So the results of [Saturday’s] South Carolina primary will be worth watching.”

Unlike Republicans, Democrats use proportional allocation of presidential delegates — so the poll’s a wake-up call for the three other main Democratic presidential hopefuls. Only candidates who garner 15% of the vote statewide or in state senatorial districts will get any of the at-large or district delegates — 198 of Texas’ total of 261 delegates.

Warren polled at 10%, while Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar were at 8% and 4%, respectively. Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and California billionaire Tom Steyer, who dropped out of the race Saturday night after a third-place finish in South Carolina, each had 1%. Undecideds were at 5%.

What Texas Democrats value

While many Hispanic officeholders in Texas have endorsed other candidates, Sanders’ focus on lessening the country’s economic divide appeals to many Latinos. And that’s not just the young, interviews with poll respondents suggest.

Richard Méndez, 70, a retired El Paso mail carrier, said rich Americans’ wealth keeps piling up, “and they’re not even doing anything.”

Still, Sanders should stop talking about being a democratic socialist, Méndez said.

“He’s just going to give ammunition to that other guy to win the election,” he said, referring to President Donald Trump.

“But I’m still going to support Sanders all the way,” Méndez said. “He’s going to give Medicare for everybody and would forgive student loans and all the good things like that — more help for the people.”

Fears that Sanders might not be able to win in November, though, drive others into Biden and Bloomberg’s arms.

“I think Bernie’s great. Really, honestly,” said registered nurse Joyce Chan, 41, of Houston, who’s backing Biden. “I’m just a little worried that [Sanders] won’t be able to beat Trump. I just want a good, strong candidate that will have a really good chance of beating Trump.”

Retired oil and gas production foreman Tommy Henderson of Odessa, a Bloomberg backer, said he’d like to see more free community college programs that put people to work, but not Sanders’ free college for all.

The Vermont senator “sure does have some Marxist leanings,” said Henderson, 86, an independent. He said he’s drawn to Bloomberg because he has business experience and problem-solving skills.

Asked why he’s not for the incumbent, who’s also a businessman, Henderson replied,

“Bloomberg wants to give something back to the country, where this fellow in the White House right now seems more concerned with taking something.”

Owens, the pollster, noted there are those who discount Bloomberg as just spending millions without effect.

“The early-voting numbers show that’s not true,” he said. “Bloomberg, even if it’s a second-place showing, is going to have a showing in Texas.”

Trump ahead — but not cleared

For Trump, the poll brings mixed messages from the Lone Star State.

The all but certain Republican nominee leads in all six of the November matchups the poll tested — with Biden, Bloomberg and Sanders the most competitive Democrats.

All trailed the incumbent Republican by 1 percentage point, 44% to 45%, well within the margin of error, the poll found. Buttigieg was 4 percentage points behind Trump (41% to 45%); Klobuchar, 7 behind (38% to 45%); and Warren, 10 down (37% to 47%).

Still, Texans remain almost evenly divided on Trump’s performance in his first term, with 47% saying they approve of the way he’s handling the job of president, while 48% disapprove.

And on impeachment, while a plurality of Texans in late January said Trump should not be removed from office, the latest poll found that by 54% to 44%, a majority say the Senate’s acquittal of him doesn’t clear him of all wrongdoing.

A plurality, 40%, agreed with Trump’s post-acquittal firings of those who testified before the House intelligence committee about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, such as Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman of the National Security Council and Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, while 35% disagreed.

‘Public option’ popular with Texans

The poll also found that in traditionally bright-red Texas, many things that the Republicans are fighting hardest against, such as universal health care and gun control, enjoy support from majorities of Texans.

While poll respondents narrowly oppose a single-payer health care system of the sort Sanders is pushing, with 51% against and 47% for, a majority supports a universal health care system for the U.S. They broke 54% to 45% on that question, and even more significantly in favor of a Medicare “public option” type plan favored by Bloomberg, Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar.

Asked if they favor a “health care option” that lets people keep their private insurance but uses tax dollars to help uninsured Americans obtain coverage from a government plan, 70% said they would support it. Only 27% opposed.

Poll respondent Bill Husbands of San Antonio, though, said he opposes such proposals as unworkable.

“You can talk about any program that the government is responsible for, and they’ve messed it up some way,” said Husbands, 79, a strong Republican and part-time, independent risk manager.

On guns, Texans by 87% to 6% favor requiring all potential gun buyers to undergo background checks. By 70% to 16%, they support “red flag laws” that would let law enforcement take guns away from people a judge deems dangerous.

In Washington, where Republicans control the U.S. Senate, and Austin, where they dominate both houses of the Legislature, such gun-control proposals have been stalled.

Asked if they have a positive or negative impression of socialism, 36% of Texans said positive while 61% said negative. On capitalism, the split was 72% positive, 25% negative.

Even talking about socialism in an American election — as a guide for U.S. domestic policies — disturbs some older Texans who are staunch Republicans.

“I can’t understand why anyone who has any common sense would want communism to take over in the USA,” said retired Army spouse Martha Beasley, 82, of Texarkana. “I will never support Jane Fonda or Bernie Sanders or anyone who wants to destroy our country.”

U.S. Senate, Texas House — and Beto

In this year’s Texas race for U.S. Senate, the poll suggested three-term Republican incumbent John Cornyn may avoid a runoff against four little-known primary challengers. But as in last month’s poll by The News and UT Tyler, Cornyn has only 56% support among Republicans and independents who lean Republican. And nearly one-third (32%) of all Texans still don’t know enough about him to rate his job performance.

On the Democratic side, former congressional candidate MJ Hegar of Round Rock broke from the 12-candidate pack. According to the poll, she is now in the lead with support of 15% of Democrats and independents who lean Democratic. Three candidates were in second place, with 7% apiece — labor activist Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez of Austin, state Sen. Royce West of Dallas and former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell of Houston.

No one else’s support hit or exceeded 5%.

Among Democratic primary participants who voted early, Hegar captured 33%. Among white voters, the former Air Force rescue helicopter pilot’s support jumped to 24%, from 14% in January. Tzintzún Ramirez, who last month shared Hispanic support with other hopefuls with Hispanic surnames, is now leading among Latinos, with 13%. Among African Americans, West is the leader, with 15%.

In the battle for the Texas House, where the GOP enjoys an 83-67 edge currently, 51% of respondents said if the general election were today, they would vote for the Democratic candidate. The poll found 49% would choose a Republican state representative.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke of El Paso has formed a group to try to help capture the nine additional seats it would take for his party to gain control of the Texas House ahead of redistricting next year.

Half of respondents said if O’Rourke visits their district to help the local Democratic House candidate, it would make them more likely to support that person. But 50% of all Texans, including 74% of Republicans, said an O’Rourke visit would tend to repel them from supporting the local Democrat.

The poll by The News and UT Tyler is the second of five that will be taken in 2020, before the Nov. 3 general election.