Texas opened in-person early voting Oct. 19, putting a closely watched Senate contest into a 12-day voting window before midterm elections that could shift control of the chamber.
Democratic state Rep. James Talarico is challenging Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican. A net gain of four seats would give Democrats control of the Senate, and Inside Elections classified the Texas contest as a toss-up on Oct. 15.
A CBS News/YouGov poll from Oct. 8-16 showed Talarico at 51% and Paxton at 49% among likely voters. The two-point difference fell inside the survey's 3.5-percentage-point margin of error; CBS said 1,492 registered voters took part. Earlier coverage of polling and turnout in the race provided more detail.
CBS News' video report on the early-voting kickoff described Texas as having multiple closely watched midterm races and featured Texas Tribune politics reporter Kayla Guo.
The Texas secretary of state's election calendar lists Oct. 30 as the final day of in-person early voting and Nov. 3 as Election Day.
