TEXAS - New polling in Texas's U.S. Senate race shows Republican Ted Cruz with a six-point lead over Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke.
- Poll finds Ted Cruz with 6-point lead over Beto O'Rourke
- Poll was conducted prior to start of early voting period
- Republicans lead Democrats in several Texas races
The University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll released Friday puts Cruz at 51 percent and O'Rourke with 45. Libertarian Neal Dikeman got two percent of the vote, and another two percent said they would vote for someone else.
The poll of likely voters was done before early voting began.
“The overall results fall within the range we’ve been seeing. A close, single-digit race,” said Jim Henson, head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas and co-director of the poll. “This is was we thought it was, it’s a mobilization race. Each candidate trying to get their party members out to vote. We’re not seeing any signs of significant crossover.”
But Henson said what’s closing the gap for O’Rourke is independent voters. They broke for O’Rourke 51 percent to Cruz’s 39 percent.
In other statewide races, Republicans held double-digit leads over Democratic challengers.
Gov. Greg Abbott lead Democrat Lupe Valdez, 56 percent to 37 percent, respectively.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick held an 18-point lead over Democrat Mike Collier, with 53 percent to Collier’s 35 percent.
Attorney General Ken Paxton had a slightly smaller advantage over his Democratic challenger Justin Nelson. Paxton got 48 percent to Nelson’s 36 percent.
The internet survey of 1,200 registered voters has an overall margin of error of 2.83 percentage points. The likely voter sample of 927 voters has a margin of error of 3.22 percentage points.