As voters across Florida get ready for the presidential primaries on March 15, a new poll shows most voters aren’t sure about some of the leading candidates trying to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in the U.S. Senate.
Public Policy Polling (PPP), a firm with connections to prominent Democrats, released a poll on Tuesday which finds at least a quarter of Florida voters are in the dark on the Senate race.
U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., had leads over three potential Republican rivals in the poll but a large segment of voters remains undecided. Matched up against U.S. Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., Murphy leads 38 percent to 34 percent while 27 percent are not sure. Murphy takes 41 percent while U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., pulls 33 percent and 26 percent are not sure. Pitted against Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, Murphy gets 40 percent while the Republican claims 31 percent and 29 percent are not sure.
U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., runs weaker than primary rival Murphy in the poll. Jolly gets 38 percent while Grayson gets 35 percent and 26 percent are not sure. Grayson leads Lopez-Cantera 38 percent to 35 percent while 26 percent remain not sure. Against DeSantis, Grayson gets 40 percent while the Republican pulls 34 percent and 26 percent are not sure.
“Democrats appear to have a slight initial advantage in the Florida Senate race,” said Dean Debnam, the president of PPP, on Tuesday. “But it’s hard to make too much of it at this point because the candidates are so little known.”
Grayson is the best known candidate but more than half of voters--53 percent--are not sure about him while 16 percent see him as favorable and 31 percent view him in an unfavorable light. Murphy is seen as favorable by 16 percent while 15 percent view him unfavorably and 69 percent are not sure.
The Republicans are even less known. Jolly is seen as favorable by 11 percent, unfavorable by 19 percent and 70 percent are not sure about him. Lopez-Cantera is seen as unfavorable by 17 percent while 9 percent view him favorably and 74 percent are not sure about him. Three-quarters of those surveyed--75 percent--are not sure about DeSantis while 10 percent see him favorably and 15 percent view him unfavorably.
Attorney and Navy veteran Pam Keith and life coach Lateresa Jones, both of whom are running for the Democratic nomination, were not included in the general election poll. On the Republican side, businessman and veteran Todd Wilcox and Manatee County businessman Carlos Beruff, who just entered the race, were left out of the general election poll.
The poll of 1,012 registered Florida voters was taken from Feb. 24-Feb. 25 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
