For some reason, Democrats figured that Sen. Ted Cruz was vulnerable, that his seat in Texas was somehow up for grabs. They were sure that the Lone Star State was ready for more things like gun control.

Apparently, none of these Democrats had ever been to Texas.

Poll after poll claimed that Cruz’s opponent, Beto O’Rourke, was challenging the former presidential candidate.

This information, in turn, seemed to encourage O’Rourke to continue talking about all kinds of things that usually don’t fly in Texas. You know, things like gun control. After all, I’m not sure O’Rourke has ever met a gun control policy he didn’t like.

And how well is this working out for him?

A new poll released by Quinnipiac University Tuesday shows Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke down nine points in his race against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Fifty-four percent of likely voters said that they would support Cruz in the election, compared to 45 percent who said they would support O’Rourke.

The two candidates have overwhelming support within their parties: 94 percent of Republicans would vote for Cruz, and 94 percent of Democrats would vote for O’Rourke. Independent voters support O’Rourke by 51 percent. O’Rourke also has the youth vote, as a majority of voters between 18 and 39 would support him. Ninety-seven percent of black voters are also in favor of O’Rourke, and 54 percent of Hispanic voters are supporting him.

However, Cruz has wide margins of support among white voters. A majority of Cruz voters said that the economy and gun policy were the most important issues to them in the election. O’Rourke is a supporter of gun control. A majority of O’Rourke voters said that the most important issues to them were health care and the Supreme Court. Cruz voted to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He is also a critical vote in the potential confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

A recent NBC News/Marist College poll found O’Rourke only four points behind Cruz, trailing him with 45 percent to Cruz’s 49 percent.

In other words, O’Rourke is trailing. Further, we’ve seen plenty of evidence that polling in recent years has skewed left. Whether that skew is intentional or due to some outside factor is irrelevant. The polls seem to routinely claim that left-leaning candidates and positions are doing better than they do on election day.

That means there’s a good chance that O’Rourke is even further behind than these polls indicate.

However, here’s an interesting line from the above quote: “A majority of O’Rourke voters said that the most important issues to them were health care and the Supreme Court.”

Now, I’m not interested in talking health care or SCOTUS at the moment. What I am interested in is how O’Rourke supporters don’t seem to be prioritizing his anti-gun stance as all that important.

This fact goes along with something I’ve noted several times in the past, and that’s how anti-gun voters tend to prioritize other things over gun control, while pro-gun voters tend to prioritize gun rights over other things. This information is yet another data point that seems to support that.

And with that in mind, it will be hilarious to see O’Rourke lose, lose big, and wonder just how he went wrong by being anti-gun in the state many consider the most pro-gun state in the country.