Jackson Falconer
The results of
a poll released Wednesday by Florida Atlantic University shows the Sunshine State's Republican voters preferring Junior U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio over former two-term Gov. Jeb Bush as their presidential nominee.
The FAU poll was conducted during Sept. 17-20 with a total of 352 likely Republican-registered voters. According to the results, Rubio now has 19 percent support of Florida Republicans, while Jeb has 11 percent.
Kevin Wagner, FAU associate professor of political science, told Politico he found Rubio's lead surprising.
The poll results might in part reflect each candidate's showings in the first two GOP debates. Both of Bush's performances had been widely panned by observers, while Rubio has appeared to have found his footing last Wednesday evening on a crowded stage.
But both Floridians still have a long way to go in order to catch up to current frontrunner Donald Trump. Support for the businessman-turned-politician was found to be hovering at 32 percent.
On the Democratic side for Florida, there is both good news and bad news for Hillary Clinton in FAU's poll. The good news shows that she is polling ahead of Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden with 59.5 percentage points. Biden is in second place, with 15.9 percent, while Sanders is close behind with 15.2 percent.
The bad news for Clinton is that were the general election held today, Rubio, Bush, and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson all beat her in the southern swing state. The results show that in a match-up with Carson, the Republican would have 51.7 percent of Floridians' support, while Clinton would have 39.5 percent. Rubio would have 50.4 percent to her 42.2 percent, and Bush would have 49.1 percent to 40.9 percent.
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