PPP: Cruz 46, O’Rourke 42

Once, twice, three times a poll result.

Rep. Beto O’Rourke

A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that the Texas Senate race between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke is competitive as O’Rourke continues to close the gap. In the initial matchup in January, Cruz led O’Rourke 45-37, but the results for August show a closer race with O’Rourke only 4 points behind Cruz, 46-42.

Texans believe that special interest money in Texas elections is a problem and would rather elect Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke to the U.S. Senate due to his campaign being entirely funded by individuals, while Republican incumbent Ted Cruz has accepted $1.3 million from corporate PACs. After learning that O’Rourke is not taking a dime from political action committees or special interest group PACs, voters in January supported him over Cruz 43-41, and O’Rourke retains and expands this lead in August, 46-43.

A plurality (48%) of voters believe special interest money in Texas elections is a major problem, and 24% believe it is a minor problem. Also, a majority of voters (56%) would be more likely to support a candidate who has pledged to not take any money from corporate special interests, which is good news for O’Rourke.

Key findings from the survey include:

– O’Rourke’s name recognition has grown since January as well as his favorability. In January, only 39% of voters had an opinion of him, and his favorability was 20% while 19% had an unfavorable opinion of him. Now 57% have an opinion of him with 31% having a favorable and 26% having an unfavorable opinion.
– A plurality of Texans (44%) think Cruz is more responsive to his big campaign donors than to ordinary Texans.

PPP surveyed 797 Texas voters from August 1-2, 2018. The margin of error is +/- 3.5%. 75% of interviews for the poll were conducted over the phone with 25% interviewed over the internet to reach respondents who don’t have landline telephones.

As noted above, this is the third PPP poll of the Texas Senate race, with all three being done on behalf of End Citizens United. There was no other info about this on the PPP webpage, so what you see here is everything I know about it. Adding this into the other 10 results and the average of the 11 polls so far (all but that WPA poll from last December) is 46.7 for Cruz and 40.4 for Beto. It remains a close race, but it sure would be nice to see 1) some more results that will bring down the average difference between the two; a result or two with Beto in the lead would not suck, either; and 2) some results with Beto above 43%. Beto is unquestionably doing better in the polls than any previous Dem since I’ve been tracking this stuff. But “doing better” and “in a position to be called the favorite” are two different things. Here’s hoping.

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6 Responses to PPP: Cruz 46, O’Rourke 42

  1. Manny Barrera says:

    Cook Report moved Texas to “Lean Republican” yesterday.

    https://www.cookpolitical.com/ratings/senate-race-ratings

  2. Bill Daniels says:

    I’m looking forward to the Ted/Beto debates. Ted has learned from Trump. Expect pictures of the long haired, dress wearing, bassist with the El Paso Pussycats to be prominently displayed somewhere at those debates. Also expect his DWI and burglary charges to be mentioned.

    Seems like Beto fits perfectly….gender confused, criminal behavior….

    https ://i.redd.it/6cwv6bejy2e11.jpg (close the spaces)

  3. Flypusher says:

    The beam in your eye is enormous Bill.

  4. C.L. says:

    Perhaps Beto should have a giant 72” photo of an A Hole printed on cardstock and placed on a easel- he can just point to that whenever Lying Ted opens his mouth. Maybe even bring up his family’s connection to JFKs assassination…I mean, ‘cause the President don’t lie, right ?

  5. Andrew Lynch says:

    The Cruz & Beta debate will widen the Cruz Lead.

  6. Manny Barrera says:

    The world is flat, Andrew.

    The earth revolves around the sun, Andrew.

    There are children being as sex slaves in a pizzeria that the Clintons are involved in, right Andrew.

    Is there any basis for your statement about the debates, or just an opinion, not supported by facts. But either way there is really no way to measure the actual results on whether it helps Cruz or Beto.

    There are about 3 million voters that did not vote in the primaries that will vote in November. It all depends on how they vote that will determine who wins.

    But studies have shown that Trump supporters tend to be the least educated. So let us see how enthusiastic they are in voting when Trump is not there.

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