Beto O'Rourke is catching up to Ted Cruz


Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke's effort to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas has been under close scrutiny, and a new poll suggests he's gaining ground six days out from the midterms.
A poll from the University of Texas at Tyler released Wednesday shows Cruz ahead of O'Rourke by 3.6 percentage points among likely voters, quite close to the 3.26-point margin of error, The Texas Tribune reports. Cruz has support from 47 percent of likely voters, while O'Rouke has 43.4 percent support. Another 5.7 percent of voters were undecided. Among registered voters, Cruz holds a larger lead of 4.3 percentage points.
This comes days after a Quinnipiac survey showed Cruz with a five-point lead on his Democratic opponent, down from a nine-point lead earlier in the month. The incumbent senator is still the heavy favorite to win next Tuesday, but the race has become far tighter than anyone would have predicted months ago. Not every recent poll has been quite as favorable for O'Rourke, though, as a CBS 11 / Dixie Strategies Texas poll released Tuesday showed Cruz with a much more decisive 10-point lead. FiveThirtyEight projects Cruz has an 80 percent chance of victory.
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The University of Texas at Tyler's poll reached 1,033 adults online from Oct. 15 to Oct. 28. The margin of error is 3.26 percentage points among likely voters, and 3.03 percentage points among registered voters.
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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