U.S. Rep. Todd Young leads U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Indiana, according to a poll released Friday by IPFW's Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics.

Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz appears to be comfortably ahead of Donald Trump among likely GOP voters in Tuesday's state primary election, the Downs Center said Friday.

Young is favored by 41.8 percent of respondents and Stutzman by 33.5 percent, with 24.8 percent undecided, the poll found.

The Downs Center said the margin "is not too large" for Stutzman to overcome considering the number of undecided voters, the margin of error and "the volatile nature of the primary electorate."

The telephone poll of 400 likely Republican voters was conducted April 13 to 27 by Research Solution Center for the Downs Center, and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.9 percent. The Downs Center said 15.8 percent of respondents identified themselves as political independents who plan to vote in the GOP primary.

About 62 percent of Stutzman's backers said their support for him is strong, compared to only 51 percent who said their support for Young is strong, the poll found.

In Indiana's Republican presidential primary, Cruz is favored by 44.8 percent of survey respondents, compared with 29 percent for Trump and 13.3 percent for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the Downs Center said. Thirteen percent of respondents said they were undecided.

Despite the wide margin between Cruz and New York City real estate developer Trump, who is the national front-runner for the Republican nomination, the Downs Center cautioned "the race still could be in flux" because of the number of undecided voters, Kasich's decision this week not to campaign in Indiana as part of a reported agreement with Cruz and Cruz's announcement Wednesday that Carly Fiorina would be his running mate if he would become the GOP nominee.

The poll found that 57 percent of Cruz's supporters are women, compared with 44.8 percent for Trump, who has made disparaging remarks about certain women during his campaign.

bfrancisco@jg.net