According to a poll taken by the Florida Southern College Center for Polling and Policy Research – Donald Trump is still the top choice among Sunshine State Republicans but Sen. Marco Rubio has moved into second place. The poll was conducted from Jan. 30 through Feb. 6 with a total of 608 contacted and the survey has a margin of error of 4 percent.
The poll was taken before the New Hampshire debate where Sen. Rubio had one of his worst showings thus far. However, the poll likely reflects his strong and unexpected third place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
Going inside the numbers Trump was the choice of 27 percent of those polled while Rubio moved up to a strong second with 20 percent. Moving from second to third was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 12 percent; Palm Beach neurosurgeon, Ben Carson was next at 6 percent and then came former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in fifth place with 4 percent of those polled choosing him.
Florida on the Democratic side remains strongly Hillary Clinton country as she maintains a strong lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 43 percent to 26 percent.
There were some interesting head –to-head matchups as both Rubio and Bush would likely defeat Clinton in a general election. Both however were within the margin of error with Rubio and Bush besting Clinton by the same 45 percent to 43 percent margin.
Meanwhile, should Trump be the party’s nominee Clinton would defeat him by 45 percent to 38 percent. The numbers are very interesting but look for them to change as there will be a number of primaries before Floridians head to the polls on March 15th.
