Poll: Cruz holds 9-point lead over O’Rourke in Texas Senate race

Incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is maintaining his 9-point advantage over challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) in Texas’s Senate race, according to a new poll.

Cruz has the support of 54 percent of likely voters polled, while O’Rourke is backed by 45 percent with the election less than a month away, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released early Thursday. Cruz’s 9-point lead is identical to the edge he held in the same poll three weeks ago.

{mosads}Before the two most recent Quinnipiac polls, surveys showed a tight contest, with Cruz typically holding a slight advantage.

Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a new statement that O’Rourke “has hit a wall.”

“Is the Beto bubble bursting or just hissing away with a slow leak? With less than four weeks until Election Day, Congressman Beto O’Rourke has hit a wall and remains the same nine points behind Sen. Ted Cruz as he was when Quinnipiac University polled the race last month,” Brown said.

“The election is far from over, but Sen. Cruz would have to suffer a major collapse for him to lose,” he continued. “That is even more unlikely since 97 percent of Cruz voters say they are sure they won’t change their minds.” 

The new poll released showed that Cruz is propelled to his lead by men. He’s supported by 62 percent of men, while 37 percent said they’ll vote for O’Rourke. 

O’Rourke winning Texas is viewed as one of a few paths to a Senate majority for Democrats. The party would need a net gain of two Senate seats in the midterms to take control of the upper chamber.

The Quinnipiac poll’s results were based on surveys with 730 likely voters in Texas from Oct. 3-7. The poll has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

A RealClearPolitics average of Texas Senate polls shows Cruz with a 6-point lead in the race.