Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) leads his Democratic opponent Rep. Colin Allred by just 4 points in a race Democrats would love to seriously compete in, according to a new poll.
The poll from the University of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler) showed Cruz leading Allred with 43 percent support to the representative’s 39 percent among registered voters. Five percent said they would support Libertarian Ted Brown, and 10 percent said they were undecided.
In a survey of likely voters, Cruz’s lead decreases slightly to 3 points, 45 percent to 42 percent, with 5 percent still for Brown and 7 percent undecided.
With the map of Senate seats up for election this year presenting several more opportunities for Republicans to make gains, Democrats have looked to Texas, where Cruz is seeking his third term, and Florida, where Sen. Rick Scott (R) is running for a second term, as possible chances for expanding their control in the Senate.
Democrats now have a narrow majority in the body, while Republicans see multiple paths to retaking the chamber.
Polls on the Texas Senate race have mostly shown Cruz in the lead but with some significantly varying margins. For example, he led Allred by 11 points in another poll released this month, but he led by 6 points in one poll from March taken just after the candidates won their respective primaries.
In this UT Tyler poll, Democratic and Republican respondents overwhelmingly are supporting their party’s candidate, but independents appear largely up for grabs. A plurality of 40 percent said they were undecided.
While most respondents had a set opinion of Cruz, many still do not know Allred well enough to have an opinion. Cruz was viewed very or somewhat favorably by 40 percent of respondents and very or somewhat negatively by 50 percent.
Allred was viewed favorably by 34 percent and unfavorably by 24 percent, with 34 percent saying they don’t know enough about him.
The poll was conducted among 1,144 registered voters, including 931 likely voters, from June 11-20. The margin of error for registered voters was 3.7 points, while the margin for likely voters was 3.8 points.