Donald Trump remains at the head of the pack of Republican presidential candidates in Florida, a new poll shows.
St. Pete Polls conducted a poll for Saint Petersblog which was released on Wednesday evening showing Trump running strong in Florida, ahead of two Republicans--former Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio--who rose up the political ladder in the Sunshine State.
Trump takes 36 percent of active Florida Republicans while U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is moving up in the national polls and ahead in recent surveys of Iowa, claims second with 22 percent. Rubio stands in third with 17 percent.
The other candidates are in single digits. Bush claims 9 percent while Dr. Ben Carson pulls 6 percent in the poll. Gov. Chris Christie, R-NJ, gets 3 percent while Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, garners 2 percent. Businesswoman Carly Fiorina and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., receive 1 percent apiece while 3 percent support other candidates.
If Trump is the nominee, he can count of the support of a majority of Florida Republicans. The poll shows 73 percent of Florida Republicans would support Trump in the general election if he is the Republican nominee while 20 percent say they would not back him and 7 percent are undecided on the matter.
The poll of 2,694 Florida Republicans was taken from Dec. 14-Dec. 15 and had a margin of error of +/- 1.9 percent. The Republican presidential hopefuls held their fifth round of debates on Tuesday night, just as this poll was being wrapped up. In the debate, Trump said he would not run as an independent or a third party candidate in the general election.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
