David Jolly Leads New Poll But Many Florida Republicans Remain Uncommitted in Senate Race

There’s no clear favorite in the Republican primary to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in 2016, though U.S. Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla. is ahead of the other candidates, a new poll shows. 

St. Pete Polls took a survey of likely Florida Republican primary voters for St. Petersblog which was released on Thursday. Jolly took 22 percent while U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., garnered 12 percent. Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who launched his Senate bid on Wednesday, pulled 11 percent and U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., took 9 percent. 

But 23 percent of Republicans supported other candidates (including businessman Todd Wilcox who was not included in the poll) while 22 percent were unsure. Jolly was the best known of the four candidates included in the poll but 59 percent of Florida Republicans were unsure about him. Despite Lopez-Cantera being Gov. Rick Scott’s understudy, 60 percent of those surveyed were unsure of him. Even more Republicans--63 percent--were unsure of Miller and DeSantis.

The poll of 1,074 likely Republican primary voters was taken on July 15 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.