O’Rourke, a former El Paso congressman who came close to ousting Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2018 Senate election before unsuccessfully running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, grabbed the support of 43% of registered voters in a Quinnipiac University poll.
Abbott, a former state attorney general who’s running for a third four-year term steering Texas, stood at 48% support.
Abbott’s 5-point advantage over O’Rourke was down from a 15-point lead in a Quinnipiac survey conducted in December. Other recent polls have indicated Abbott with a larger lead.
The new survey questioned respondents June 9-13, in the wake of the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 young students and two teachers were killed and 17 other people wounded.
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