Businessman Donald Trump is demolishing his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in Florida, a new poll shows.
On the heels of a Fox 35 poll showing Trump with a double digit lead, Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Business & Economics Polling Initiative (BEPO) released a poll on Wednesday which finds Trump has the support of almost half of Republicans in the Sunshine State.
Trump takes 48 percent in the poll with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, his nearest rival with 16 percent.
“At this point, Donald Trump is simply crushing the opposition in the Florida Republican primary,” said Kevin Wagner, an associate professor of political science at FAU and a BEPI research fellow, on Wednesday. “Not only has he increased his lead, Mr. Trump’s favorability ratings among Republicans are now ahead of his competitors by a substantial margin.”
Two candidates from Florida--U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush--were next. Rubio takes 11 percent in the poll with Bush right behind him with 10 percent.
The rest of the field are in low single digits. A host of Republican presidential hopefuls--Dr. Ben Carson, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky--all pull 3 percent apiece with Gov. John Kasich of Ohio behind them at 2 percent. Businesswoman Carly Fiorinia garners 1 percent while former Gov. Jim Gilmore of Virginia takes less than 1 percent. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania was not included in the poll.
Trump and Cruz are rising in the Sunshine State, according to FAU’s polls. Trump’s standing in the new poll is a gain of 12 percent from a FAU survey taken in November while Cruz has moved up 6 percent from the November poll. Carson is losing ground, down 11 percent from the November poll, while Rubio dropped 6 percent from where he was in November.
The poll of 386 likely Florida Republican primary voters was taken from Jan. 15-Jan. 18 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
