WASHINGTON – Texas U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, the Democrats' top hope of toppling Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, starts the year at a significant polling disadvantage, according to a new survey released Tuesday by the Cruz campaign.

O'Rourke, a three-term congressman from El Paso, trails Cruz among likely Texas voters by an 18-point margin, or 52-percent to 34-percent, according to the poll conducted by WPA Intelligence, a firm headed by Cruz advisor Chris Wilson. Some 13 percent were undecided.

The results echo an online Google Consumer Survey of likely Texas voters, conducted in December by CBPolling, showing Cruz ahead 57 percent to 43 percent, or a 14 point lead.

The GOP poll also shows a significant name-recognition deficit for O'Rourke, who was elected to Congress in 2012, the same year Cruz was elected to the Senate. Only 32 percent of poll respondents contacted in December had heard of him, compared to 99 percent for Cruz, who ran for president in 2016.

Cruz clocked in with a favorability rating of 50 percent, while 42 percent of likely voters have an unfavorable opinion of the senator. For O'Rourke, 14 percent of those who had heard of him have a favorable view, while 7 percent said they have an unfavorable view.

The poll of 600 likely voters was conducted between December 12-14, as the GOP-led Congress scrambled to enact major tax legislation, fund the government through 2018, and resolve an impasse over disaster relief and a program to help Dreamers, young immigrants brought into the country illegally as children.

The margin of error in the GOP study is plus or minus 4 percent. The margin of error in the CB poll was 4.4 percent.