Ted Cruz is struggling to win over black voters according to a new poll, that despite that weakness shows the Republican senator with a healthy nine-point lead over Democrat Beto O’Rourke.
Cruz is getting support from just three percent of likely black voters, but is winning 45 percent of likely Hispanic voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday.
The performance with Hispanic voters boosted Cruz to a significant lead over O’Rourke overall in the poll. He leads the Democrat by 9 percentage points, 54-45 percent.
Tuesday’s poll suggests Cruz is actually performing better among Hispanic voters compared to his performance in 2012, when he garnered 40 percent of the Hispanic vote against Democrat Paul Sadler, according to a survey Cruz’s team conducted six weeks after the election.
Hispanics represent roughly 40 percent of the population of Texas, according to Census Bureau data, though that does not reflect the voting population.
Cruz is garnering very little support among black voters. Just 5 percent of those surveyed said they have a favorable view of the senator, compared to 84 percent who had a positive opinion of O’Rourke.
African Americans constitute roughly 12 percent of the total population of Texas.
Cruz’s overall lead in the poll comes in large part because two-thirds of likely white voters support the incumbent senator, while 32 percent support O’Rourke. In addition, Cruz leads O’Rourke among men and women who are likely to vote in the November election.
Quinnipiac surveyed 807 likely Texas voters from Sept. 11 to 17. The poll’s margin of error is 4.1 percentage points.
A RealClearPolitics average of polling for the Texas Senate race shows Cruz up by 4 points. The Cook Political Report rates the race as “lean Republican.”
This story was updated at 4:21 p.m.