Poll: Ted Cruz-Beto O'Rourke Senate race too close to call

Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, left, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Houston Chronicle photos by Brett Coomer, left, and Karen Warren. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, left, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Houston Chronicle photos by Brett Coomer, left, and Karen Warren. Photo: File, Staff / Houston Chronicle Photo: File, Staff / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Poll: Ted Cruz-Beto O'Rourke Senate race too close to call 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

The race for U.S. Senate in Texas is too close to call, a new poll shows.

If the race for Senate were today, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz would get 47 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Democrat Beto O'Rourke, the new Quinnipiac University poll of 1,029 Texas voters. The margin of error on the poll is 3.6 percentage points.

Only 8 percent of respondents in the poll said the either did not know who they would vote for.

O'Rourke's advantage is clear: younger voters.

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Voters under the age of 35 are overwhelmingly supporting O'Rourke. Fifty percent of people in the poll between the ages of 18 and 34 are supporting the El Paso Democrat with just 34 percent supporting Cruz.

But among older voters, Cruz is dominating. Voters between 50 years old and 64 sided with Cruz 53 percent of the time. Just 41 percent were backing O'Rourke.

It's the first poll ever focused entirely on Texas by Quinnipiac University, which has been polling in battleground states like Ohio, Virginia and Florida for more than a decade.

"Democrats have had a target on Sen. Ted Cruz's back, and they may be hitting the mark," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll.

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While the race is close in the poll, there is good news from Cruz in that his job approval rating is ahead of President Donald Trump's. Only 43 percent of Texans in the poll said they approved of the job Trump was doing. Meanwhile, 47 percent approved of the job Cruz is doing.

The poll was conducted from April 12 to April 17.

Jeremy Wallace writes about state politics and government for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter at @JeremySWallace.