Polls show Democrats Gillum and Nelson lead in Independent voters
A new poll released on Monday shows Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee, with the lead over former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., as Floridians look for a new governor while a key U.S. Senate race is tied.
The University of North Florida (UNF) unveiled the poll of likely voters which found Gillum with 47 percent and DeSantis with 43 percent while 10 percent remain undecided.
Both candidates have nailed down their party bases with 85 percent of Democrats behind Gillum and 81 percent of Republicans for DeSantis. Following a trend in other recent polls, voters outside the major parties back Gillum who leads in the UNF poll 47 percent to 34 percent.
The poll also shows U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and his challenger Gov. Rick Scott are dead even with each candidates taking 45 percent.
Just like the gubernatorial race, the two candidates have the backing of their party faithful as 78 percent of Democrats are for Nelson and 83 percent of Republicans are for Scott. Nelson takes a majority of voters outside the major parties–52 percent–while 35 percent are for Scott.
Michael Binder, the faculty director of UNF’s Public Opinion Research Lab, said Nelson can take the lead if he reels in more Democrats.
“It’s still early in the election season and even though Gillum has a small lead, a lot can happen in the next six weeks. Nelson and Scott are currently tied, but one bit of hope for Nelson is that more Democrats are unsure who they will vote for and partisans will come home in November,” said Binder on Monday.
The poll of 605 likely voters was taken from Sept. 17 through Sept. 19 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.9 percent.
