This Poll Is Extremely Bad News for Ted Cruz

Membership Ticker

Clara Jeffery,
Editor-in-Chief

"You guys were one of the outlets who got singled out to balance the ledger": That's what a former Facebook employee told Monika Bauerlein and me as we dug into recent news that the platform was throttling traffic to certain publishers, including Mother Jones. It's enraging for several reasons, and since it happened during our fall fundraising drive and affects our bottom line, we hope the Mother Jones community will stand up for our fearless journalism and send a message with a donation to support it today.

"You guys were one of the outlets who got singled out to balance the ledger": That's what a former Facebook employee said as we dug into recent news that the platform was throttling traffic to certain publishers, including Mother Jones. It's enraging, and since it happened during our fall fundraising drive, we hope the Mother Jones community will stand up for our fearless journalism and send a message with a donation to support it today.

Jeff Malet/Newscom via ZUMA Press

For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.

Texas Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke has more cash on hand than Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, an army of small-dollar donors, and a penchant for drawing big crowds for everything from 5 a.m. jogs to small-town meet-and-greets. But in a state where Democrats haven’t won a statewide election since 1996, does the El Paso congressman actually have a shot at knocking off Cruz?

A new poll from Quinnipiac suggests it’s not as far-fetched as it once seemed. The Connecticut-based pollster has O’Rourke just three points back, and within the margin of error at 47–44:

Beto O’Rourke is within the margin of error of Ted Cruz in the Texas senate race.

Cruz 47
O’Rourke 44

MOE +/-3.6%@QuinnipiacPoll pic.twitter.com/D1tZZu26Nm

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 18, 2018

It’s one poll, and it’s still early. (A earlier survey from PPP had Cruz up by eight percent.) But something strange is happening in Texas this year, and O’Rourke shows no signs of going away quietly.