Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by six percentage points in Florida, a key swing state in the upcoming November general election.
The former vice president holds the support of 53 percent of Florida voters in a poll released Friday by Florida Atlantic University's College of Business. Trump falls six percentage points behind Biden with 47 percent of support in the May 8-12 survey, marking a reversal from the March FAU poll that saw Trump in the lead with 51 percent to the Democratic candidate's 49 percent.
The FAU poll of nearly 1,000 Florida voters found Biden has more than doubled Trump's support (61 percent to 30 percent) in the South Florida region--including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties--home to the president's Mar-a-Lago estate. But Trump leads the Democratic contender in the rest of the state with a 48 to 42 percentage point difference.
Biden's six-point edge in support among Florida voters still hasn't persuaded his backers that he can win: about 53 percent of Floridians said they believe Trump will win re-election this year.
Although a slightly higher percentage of independent Florida respondents said they are more likely to vote for Biden, far more independents leaning toward Trump say they are "excited" to support him in November.
Trump won the state of Florida in the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton by a 1.2 percentage point margin, pulling in 49 percent of the vote to her 47.8 percent. Like Biden, Clinton amassed much of her support in the heavily populated South Florida counties surrounding Miami.
A slew of recent national and state presidential election polls show Biden in the lead over Trump, with most of these surveys having been conducted after Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race and offered Biden his official endorsement in early April.
The most important issue cited by Florida Republican voters in the FAU poll was the economy, followed simply by the re-election of the president. Among Democrats, defeating Trump is the most important issue at stake in the 2020 election followed by health care.
Citing a potential path to garnering more excitement about his campaign, the FAU pollsters noted there is very little consensus on who Biden should pick as his vice president in the coming months. Among Biden supporters, about one-quarter (23 percent) said they would prefer he pick California Senator Kamala Harris, while 16 percent said they want to see Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren fill that spot. Thirteen percent of Biden backers said they want to see Clinton come back as his VP.
Two April presidential election surveys conducted in Florida by Fox News and Quinnipiac University found Biden defeating Trump in the Sunshine State by slim margins. A survey conducted by St. Pete Polls found the two candidates in a tie.
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Benjamin Fearnow is a reporter based out of Newsweek's New York City offices. He was previously at CBS and Mediaite ... Read more
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