Poll: Cruz leads O’Rourke by 3 points in Texas Senate race

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) holds a 3-point lead over his Senate challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D) ahead of next week’s midterm elections, according to a new poll.

Cruz leads O’Rourke 50 percent to 47 percent among likely voters surveyed in the Emerson College poll released Thursday, with 2 percent of those surveyed still undecided.

The poll of 781 likely voters in Texas was conducted Oct. 28-30 and has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

The poll shows a somewhat tightened race compared to a previous Emerson College poll released in early October, which found Cruz with a 5-point lead over O’Rourke, 47 percent to 42 percent among likely voters poled.

{mosads}The survey released Thursday is the latest showing a tightening race ahead of next week’s election.

A University of Texas at Tyler poll released the previous day showed Cruz with a less than 4-point lead over O’Rourke.

Other polls published in October showed Cruz with anywhere from a 5-point to a 10-point advantage, according to the RealClearPolitics polling index.

Election handicappers at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rate the race as a toss-up. 

The Emerson poll released Thursday also showed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) with an 8-point lead over his Democratic challenger Lupe Valdez in the governor’s race. Abbott has the support of 51 percent of likely voters surveyed compared to Valdez’s 43 percent.