Florida, Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) leads all five Republican candidates in the race to replace outgoing Sen. Marco Rubio, who is leaving the senate after an unsuccessful run for the GOP presidential nomination. According to a new Quinnipiac University poll released this morning Murphy has a small lead over a large field of Republicans. Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.), Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, along with businessmen Carlos Beruff and Todd Wilcox.
Meanwhile, fellow Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson does only marginally worse and slightly trails some of them. All that being said the race because of the 4 percent margin of error is in most cases a dead heat.
“The Florida U.S. Senate race is wide open with none of the seven candidates particularly well known to voters,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll, which surveyed 1,051 Floridians.
According to POLITICO The poll shows Murphy might have a slight advantage when it comes to claiming he’s the most-electable candidate against the field of Republicans: Beruff, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, businessman Todd Wilcox and congressmen David Jolly and Ron DeSantis.
Murphy beats Beruff 38 percent to 32 percent; Lopez Cantera by 38 percent to 34 percent; Jolly by 37 percent to 34 percent; and Wilcox by 38 percent to 33 percent. Murphy essentially ties DeSantis, 36 percent to 35 percent.
On the other hand, Grayson essentially ties Beruff, 36 percent to 35 percent and ties Lopez-Cantera with 37 percent each. But he trails DeSantis by 36 percent to 38 percent, and Jolly and Wilcox each by 35 percent to 37 percent.
So, not unlike the general election between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump who are running a close race in Florida with the former secretary of state leading the New York billionaire by a few points. It seems like the race to replace Sen. Rubio, will come down to the wire and will be very close.
