Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke says he "wouldn't concede" being down in the polls, even though the latest surveys show him falling further behind Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican incumbent he's trying to unseat.

He was asked about his poll numbers point blank during an interview Sunday with WFAA, a local ABC affiliate.

"Closing in on the final days, public polls have you down. How do you make that up now?" he was asked by WFAA's Jason Whitely.

"I don't know – I wouldn't concede that we're down," O'Rourke replied. "I think a lot of the people we're seeing and visiting and showing up for are not reflected in anyone's polls. Folks who don't typically vote in midterm elections but will vote in this one. Students who registered to vote for the first time. People who dropped out for 20 years and are back in because everything's on the line. I feel really good about our chances."

The latest polls indicate Cruz's lead over O'Rourke is widening with less than two weeks to go before the Nov. 6 midterm election. The RealClearPolitics average of polls for the first three weeks of October shows Cruz with a solid 6.8 percentage-point advantage.

Asked why his superior fundraising numbers and larger rally crowd sizes aren't being reflected in the polls, O'Rourke described the surveys as obsolete.

"My contention would be that the polls may or may not be able to predict the outcomes of these political races anymore, at least not in the way that they used to be," he said. "I'll put my money where my mouth is: I haven't hired a pollster. We're not putting any of these resources into doing polls. We're showing up where people are and listening to them."