Poll: Cruz leads O’Rourke by 4 points in Texas Senate race

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) leads Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke by about 4 points, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The survey by University of Texas at Tyler found that 46.5 percent of registered voters said they would back Cruz on Election Day, while 42.2 percent picked O’Rourke, The Texas Tribune reported.

{mosads}Almost 8 percent of respondents said they were “unsure,” while 3.5 percent chose “other.”

The survey found that Cruz holds a slight advantage over O’Rourke among likely voters, 47 percent of whom said they would support the incumbent, while 43.4 percent said they’d back O’Rourke.

The poll comes less than a week before the Nov. 6 midterm elections, with O’Rourke seeking to become the state’s first Democrat elected to the Senate in three decades.

A Quinnipiac University Poll on Monday showed Cruz with a 5-point lead, and a similar Quinnipiac released Oct. 11 showed Cruz with a 9-point advantage.

O’Rourke has gained a national following in his bid to unseat Cruz. His campaign has raised more than $70 million since 2017, far outpacing Cruz’s fundraising.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race a “toss-up.”

The Texas Tribune noted that the University of Texas at Tyler poll was conducted Oct. 15-28 among 1,033 adults.

The margin of error was 3.03 percentage points among registered voters and 3.26 points among likely voters.