Gov. Rick Scott continues to build his lead over U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate contests in the nation.
Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Business and Economics Polling Initiative (BEPI) released a poll on Tuesday afternoon showing Scott ahead of Nelson.
Scott pulls 45 percent of those surveyed while Nelson gets 39 percent and 17 percent are unsure. Last month, FAU had a poll showing Scott ahead 44 percent to 40 percent.
The governor, who is expected to easily win the Republican primary next week, gets good marks in the poll with 48 percent of those surveyed approving him wile 33 percent disapprove of him. Nelson is upside down by a whisker in the poll with 36 percent of those surveyed disapproving of him while 35 percent approve of him.
President Donald Trump is also slightly upside down in the poll with 45 percent disapproving of him while 43 percent approve of him. Trump carried the Sunshine State against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Asked about the most important issues in the November elections, 27 percent said immigration, 25 percent said health-care, 14 percent said the economy in general and 12 percent said gun control policy.
An overwhelming majority--88 percent--say they are concerned about the physical safety of students at schools while only 9 percent say they are not very concerned or not concerned at all. Sixty percent say they back stricter gun control laws while 33 percent want those laws left as they are and 7 percent think less strict gun control is needed.
The survey, which polled 800 Florida registered voters Aug. 16-20, was conducted using an online sample supplied by Survey Sampling International using online questionnaires and via an automated telephone platform (IVR) using registered voter lists supplied by Aristotle, Inc. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points.
