Poll: Trump beats Cruz in Texas

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump is beating Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in his own state, a new poll says.

The survey released on Thursday shows Trump as Texans’ first choice for the Republican presidential nomination next year, according to The Houston Chronicle.

The Texas Bipartisan Justice Committee commissioned the sampling, it said, while Florida-based Gravis Marketing gathered its results.

{mosads}The poll found Trump leading Cruz with 24 percent support from registered Republican voters, compared to the Texas lawmaker’s 16 percent.

Both men are far ahead of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), it added, who commands 4 percent support from Texan GOP voters.

The survey said that retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is the third choice among Texas Republicans, with 12 percent.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), meanwhile, earns fourth place in the sampling, with 9 percent support.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina are next, tying with 5 percent of Texas Republicans apiece.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, finally, rank evenly with Perry at 4 percent each.

The Texas poll mirrors Trump’s meteoric rise to the front of the 2016 GOP field in national polls.

The outspoken billionaire polled at 2 percent during a University of Texas survey in June, the same month he entered the race, according to the Chronicle.

Cruz previously scored 20 percent from Texas Republicans during a Texas Politics Project sampling during the same month, it added.

Cruz’s eroding support in the Lone Star State comes as Trump rallies voters with his bombastic rhetoric and status as a political outsider.

Trump has made tough talk on illegal immigration a central part of his campaign’s message, especially in border states such as Texas.

Gravis’s latest poll features a random sampling of 976 registered GOP voters in Texas. It also has a 3-point margin of error.