Freshman U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is in solid shape with voters in the Sunshine State, according to a poll released by Quinnipiac University on Wednesday.
Rubio is garnering buzz that he could end up as Mitt Romneys running mate on the Republican presidential ticket and the poll finds that adding the favorite son would help the GOP in Florida. While the poll has Romney ahead of President Barack Obama, 47 percent to 41 percent, when Rubio is added to the GOP ticket the Republicans take 49 percent, while Obama/Vice President Joe Biden follow with 41 percent.
Quinnipiac has been polling Rubios favorability for more than three years and the poll released on Wednesday shows the largest number of Florida voters in all those years holding a favorable opinion of him. While 24 percent view him as unfavorable, 44 percent see Rubio in a favorable light and 31 percent have not heard enough about him.
Rubio is in excellent shape with Republicans with 79 percent seeing him favorably and only 3 percent viewing him as unfavorable. Rubio is in solid shape with independents with 40 percent seeing him as favorable and 24 percent having an unfavorable view of him. Rubio is upside down with Democrats with 11 percent seeing him favorably and 48 percent viewing him unfavorably.
When it comes to gender, the poll shows there is not that much of a divide with Rubio. He is seen by 47 percent of men and 41 percent of women as favorable while 25 percent of men and 24 percent of women see him as unfavorable.
There is a bit of a racial divide on Rubio. The poll shows that more than half of white voters, 51 percent, see him as favorable while 23 percent view him as unfavorable. Rubio is in solid shape with Hispanic voters with 41 percent seeing him favorably while 23 percent view him unfavorably. Rubio does much worse among black voters with 9 percent seeing him in a favorable light while 35 percent view him as unfavorable, but a majority --54 percent --say they have not heard enough about him to have an opinion.
Rubio also does well when the poll turns to how Floridians see his performance in Washington. A majority, 54 percent, approve of Rubios job in the Senate while 27 percent disapprove of it. This is the highest number of Floridians who have approved of Rubios job in the 17 months Quinnipiac has included the question in its polls. A Q-Poll taken at the end of January showed 48 percent of Floridians approving of Rubios job in the Senate while 33 percent disapproved.
In the new poll, Rubio again does well with Republicans and independents. A strong majority of Republicans, 83 percent, approve of Rubios job in the Senate and so do 54 percent of independents, but the same number of Democrats, 54 percent, disapprove of it.
The poll shows Rubio doing well with both genders: 59 percent of men and 49 percent of women approving of his tenure in the Senate. Rubio again does better with whites and Hispanics than with blacks. More than half of whites, 59 percent, and Hispanics, 55 percent, approve of his performance in the Senate. Only 25 percent of black voters approve of Rubios job in the Senate while 46 percent disapprove of it.
The poll of 1,722 registered voters in Florida was taken from May 15-21 and had a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
