Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Jill Stein on the Green Party line are keeping Donald Trump close to Hillary Clinton in Florida. That’s what a University of North Florida (UNF) poll released on Thursday shows.
When it’s just the two major party candidates, Clinton is ahead of Trump 47 percent to 40 percent. But when Johnson and Stein are included, Trump narrows the gap. In that scenario, Clinton takes 41 percent while Trump pulls 38 percent, Johnson gets 6 percent and 3 percent are for Stein.
“Clinton has gotten a bounce after her strong debate performance last week, it will be fascinating to see how this plays out after the second debate on Sunday,” said Michael Binder, the faculty director of UNF’s Public Opinion Research Laboratory. “The size of Clinton’s lead drops when the additional candidates (Johnson and Stein) are listed in the question. This suggests that the Clinton campaign should perhaps perceive Johnson as a threat, who is taking more votes from her than Trump.”
Both of the major party candidates are upside down in Florida. Trump is seen as unfavorable by 60 percent while 37 percent view him favorably. Clinton is seen as unfavorable by 54 percent though 43 percent see her favorably.
“While neither candidate has high favorability for the majority of likely voters in Florida, Clinton’s net negative 9 percent is better than Trump’s net negative 23 percent,” Binder noted.
Men prefer Trump while women break Clinton’s way. Trump takes voters 55 and older while younger voters prefer Clinton. Both of the candidates have nailed down their party bases but a majority of voters outside the major parties--56 percent--are for Clinton while 29 percent back Trump.
Asked what the most important issue is, 27 percent say jobs and the economy and 17 percent point to terrorism. Education is the most important issue to 10 percent while 8 percent say it’s health-care and 7 percent think immigration is.
The poll of 696 likely Florida voters was taken from Sep. 27 through Oct. 4 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percent.
