Businessman Donald Trump, Dr. Ben Carson and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are on the rise with Florida Republicans while former U.S. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton remains in charge on the Democratic side, a new poll shows.
Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Business and Economics Polling Initiative (BEPI) released a poll on Wednesday showing Trump leads the Florida Republican primary field with 36 percent followed by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., with 18 percent. Carson stands in third with 15 percent followed by Cruz with 10 percent and former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., with 9 percent.
“Despite conjecture that Donald Trump has plateaued, his support in Florida remains very strong and could be growing,” said Kevin Wagner, who teaches political science at FAU and is a BEPI research fellow.
The rest of the field is in low single digits. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., pulls 4 percent while Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, takes 3 percent. After doing well in debates and moving up in the polls, businesswoman Carly Fiorina has crashed down to 2 percent. Gov. Chris Chrisite, R-NJ, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, and former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., each get less than 1 percent.
FAU released a poll in September which had Trump with 32 percent, Rubio with 19 percent, Bush at 11 percent, Carson with 10 percent, Fiorina taking 8 percent and Cruz with 6 percent.
On the Democratic side, with Vice President Joe Biden out of the mix, Clinton holds a commanding lead in the Florida primary with 66 percent. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., takes 22 percent while former Gov. Martin O’Malley, D-Mary., lags far behind with 4 percent.
Back in the September FAU poll, Clinton pulled 60 percent followed by Biden with 16 percent, Sanders with 15 percent and O’Malley with 2 percent.
The poll of 829 registered Florida voters was taken on Nov. 15-Nov. 16 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percent. This included samples of 355 Republican primary voters with a margin of error of +/- 5.2 percent and a sample of 297 Democratic primary voters with a margin of error of +/- 5.6 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
