- August 20, 2015 -
Donald Trump surges, Hillary Clinton slips in Florida
Donald Trump is surging in Florida, and has dethroned former Gov. Jeb Bush from his perch as the top candidate of Florida Republicans. For Democrats, the luster is coming off Hillary Clinton, who has lost a quarter of her support in the last nine weeks.
Those are the topline takeaways from new Quinnipiac Polls out Thursday.
On the Republican side, it isn't that Bush has slipped. He's at 17 percent among Florida Republicans, compared to 20 percent in the June 18 Quinnipiac Poll. That dip is within the polls margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, meaning it's statistically unchanged.
Trump, a part-time Palm Beach resident, has attracted lots of support since the last poll, clearly benefiting from massive news media attention to his style and ideas. He stands at 21 percent among Republicans – up sharply from his 3 percent on June 18 – which puts him in a lead similar to what many polls have shown nationally and in early primary states.
Florida's other favorite son candidate, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, is down. He had support of 11 percent of Florida Republicans in the new poll, down from 18 percent in June.
Ben Carson, the pediatric neurosurgeon who retired to West Palm Beach, is enjoying a boomlet of his own. He's at 11 percent in the new survey, up from 7 percent in June.
Among the 17 Republicans seeking their party's presidential nomination, only Trump, Bush, Carson and Rubio are polling above 7 percent in Florida.
The poll was taken from Aug 7-18. Pollsters' first day asking questions of Florida voters was the day after the first debate among candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.
Quinnipiac's surveys of 477 Florida Republicans and 345 Democrats have margins of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Clinton, long a favorite in Florida is way down among the state's Democrats. She was at 48 percent support in the new poll, down from 64 percent in June.
