Updated at 6:15 p.m. with comment from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

WASHINGTON — A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has expanded his lead over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.

The survey of 961 self-identified registered voters in Texas shows Cruz with a 50 percent to 39 percent edge over the El Paso congressman vying to replace him, an increase from a surprising April 18 Quinnipiac survey in which the pollster called the contest “too close to call.”

"I'm encouraged to see numbers that better reflect what's happening on the ground," said Cruz, who on Wednesday joined a roundtable discussion on human trafficking at the African American Museum in Fair Park.

The fresh poll also finds Gov. Greg Abbott leading newly minted Democratic challenger Lupe Valdez 53 percent to 34 percent, more than doubling his lead in last month’s poll.

Quinnipiac conducted the landline and mobile phone survey from May 23 to 29 — just after the former Dallas County sheriff won her Democratic primary runoff against Houston businessman Andrew White. The pollster reported a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.

It’s the second poll the organization has conducted in Texas, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office in more than two decades.

Last month, Quinnipiac raised eyebrows when it deemed the contest between Cruz and O’Rourke “too close to call” in reporting that 47 percent of Texas voters surveyed backed the Republican incumbent and 44 percent supported O’Rourke.

The same mid-April poll gave Abbott a 9-point lead over Valdez, but found that the majority of voters — 65 percent — didn’t know enough about the Democrat to have an opinion of her.

Those numbers improved for Valdez in Wednesday's survey, but indicate both she and O'Rourke are still working to build name recognition against well-known incumbents. About half of all Texas voters said they don’t know enough about the Democratic challengers to form an opinion.

The Valdez and O'Rourke campaigns have not weighed in, and Abbott's team declined comment.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll, said Cruz and Abbott’s improvement tracks alongside a recent bump in President Donald Trump’s approval ratings.

Republicans “appear to be in a little better shape than they were a few months ago,” Brown said. “Politics is a team game and the leader of the red team is Donald Trump. When he does well, others in his party do well.”

Jim Henson, head of Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, agreed, noting that successful GOP primary races thus far indicate that “candidates and campaign strategists are reading Trump’s numbers and seeing him as an asset.”

Numbers game

In the latest survey, Cruz saw the biggest gains among men and Hispanic voters. Men support the Republican incumbent 57 percent to O’Rourke’s 35 percent — up from 51 percent to 40 percent last month. And 46 percent of Hispanic voters surveyed sided with Cruz, up from 33 percent in April.

O’Rourke saw his support among Hispanic voters drop from 51 percent to 44 percent. But black voters overwhelmingly backed O’Rourke by a 70 percent to 15 percent margin.

The Senate contenders effectively break even among women, with 44 percent backing Cruz and 42 percent O’Rourke, similar to April’s results.

In the gubernatorial race, Valdez leads the governor among black voters by 45 points. Hispanics, however, back Valdez by just a 4-point margin. Last month, Valdez polled ahead of Abbott with women voters, but the governor now leads his Democratic opponent among men and women.

Brown, the Quinnipiac pollster, said Abbott is in particularly strong shape. The governor earned a 53 percent favorable job approval rating among those surveyed.

“History is not replete with examples of governors with job approval ratings in the 50s who lose,” he said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, shown with Duncanville ISD Superintendent Dr. Alfred Ray during the school's Class of 2015 graduation, has a commanding lead in the governor's race, according to a Quinnipiac poll. (Steve Hamm / Special Contributor)

Abbott is also dramatically better funded. As of February, Abbott had a $41 million warchest, while Valdez reported $115,000 in cash on hand ahead of the May 22 runoff.

Cruz and O’Rourke have a more comparable fundraising record.

The latest federal campaign filings, covering the period ending on March 31, show O’Rourke with $8 million in cash on hand, compared to Cruz’s $7.2 million.

The Cruz campaign said that, including funds from the other committees, the incumbent senator has $8.2 million in cash.

Skeptics

Henson said Quinnipiac’s latest poll appears to be more in line with what Texas political analysts have come to expect of statewide races.

Last month, skeptics noted that Quinnipiac, which has an A-minus rating from FiveThirtyEight, surveyed 1,029 self-identified registered voters, instead of likely voters. Many predict that Texas Republicans will continue to vote in greater numbers than Democrats come November.

They also questioned the political leanings of the 36 percent of respondents who identified as independents last month. Those Texas voters typically side with conservatives at the polls, but more than half of those surveyed in April said they'd support O'Rourke and more than 60 percent disapproved of Trump's job performance, indicating a strong leftward lean.

Support among independents for O’Rourke dropped to 43 percent in Wednesday’s poll, though he maintained a slight lead on Cruz at 41 percent.

“For those who have been either sensing or hoping there might be something different afoot, this [poll] throws some cold water on that,” Henson said. “But it’s still ... early summer, and it’s a volatile political environment, to grossly understate the case.”

To be clear, our internal @wpaintel polling shows a bigger lead with these Independents, but it’s good to see Quinnipiac get closer (as they oversample them by so much)

5/6 — Chris Wilson (@WilsonWPA) May 30, 2018

Chris Wilson, who conducts polling for both Cruz and Abbott and has grumbled over Quinnipiac's methodology, said his internal polling has the Republicans with wider leads. "But it's good to see Quinnipiac get closer."

Staff writer Gromer Jeffers Jr. contributed to this report from Dallas.