A new poll shows, after last week’s debate in South Carolina, businessman Donald Trump has a double digit lead over his nearest rival for the Republican presidential nomination in Florida.
OpinionSavvy and Insider Advantage took a poll for Fox 35 in Orlando which shows Trump ahead in the Sunshine State with 31 percent. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, places second with 19 percent. Two candidates from Florida--former Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio--are also in double digits. Bush takes 13 percent in the poll with Rubio right behind him at 12 percent.
The rest of the field is in single digits. Dr. Ben Carson takes 7 percent while Gov. Chris Christie, R-NJ, and businesswoman Carly Fiorina pull 4 percent apiece. Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., take 3 percent each while former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., garners 2 percent. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., gets less than 1 percent.
In his analysis of the poll, noted pundit Matt Towery, the founder of Insider Advantage, noted that the “poll shows deep support for Trump” and pointed to almost 70 percent of those surveyed having watched last week’s debate with 37 percent of those who watched it saying Trump won it.
“These races remain very fluid, but for the moment, Florida's results are very similar to those of our poll released this weekend of South Carolina likely GOP voters, where Trump enjoyed virtually the same lead that he has in this poll of Florida Republicans," Towery added in his analysis. “It should be noted that the two candidates from Florida are pulling a combined 25 percent of the vote, which suggests that if one of them takes a solid lead of the other in earlier states, that candidate might be a significant player in the Florida primary.”
The poll of 838 likely Florida Republican primary voters was taken on Jan. 17 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
