Ted Cruz leads Beto O'Rourke in a poll

With the strong support of older men and voters, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has largely advanced ahead of his Democratic representative Beto O'Rourke in a poll conducted Thursday night by the New York Times Upshot and Siena College.

Mr. Cruz was eight percentage points ahead, from 51% to 43%, among the 800 registered voters, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. About 5% of voters said they were undecided or refused to say who they would vote for.

Although a Democrat no longer has a position in Texas since 1994, the party hoped that Mr. O'Rourke would make a long-term offer, believing that a breakthrough in this solidly red state could help the Democrats win an improbable majority in the Senate. He proved Friday that his campaign was over $ 38 million and had reached more than $ 38 million the record record of the Senate race. He reached a national celebrity as a symbol of Democratic resistance to President Trump.

But less than four weeks before polling day, more and more Texans seem to remain loyal to the Republican candidate in a state that Mr Trump carried by nine points in 2016.

Half of survey respondents said they approve of Trump's work and a slight majority would like to see Republicans retain control of the Senate in November. And 57% said they oppose the actions of N.F.L. players who kneel during the national anthem – alongside Mr. Cruz, who reprimanded O'Rourke for hiring the athletes – although half of the respondents said they supported the right of players to do it.

[[[[Read more about the survey here.]

As with many races across the country this year, the gender gap in the Texas race seems to be striking. Candidates are actually equal among the voters, according to the poll, but Mr. Cruz holds a lead of more than 15 points on the men. It also leads decisively with voters over 45 years old.

[[[[Beto O'Rourke could benefit from an improbable support group: white evangelical women. Learn more about it here.]

But Mr. Cruz, son of a Cuban immigrant, has long argued that Texas Hispanics were more conservative than Hispanic voters in other states. In an interview in August, Mr. Cruz said he had won about 40% of the Hispanic vote during his 2012 Senate run, while Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had won about 27 % of the Hispanic vote nationwide.