Trump, Clinton Continue To Lead Florida: Poll

SAINT LEO, FL — With polling places across Florida set to open bright and early Tuesday morning, businessman Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continue to hold sizeable leads over their competition.

That’s according to the Saint Leo University Polling Institute’s latest survey of likely Presidential Preference Primary voters in Florida. Trump was favored by 41.4 percent of the Republicans polled while Clinton had 59.4 percent support from the Democrats polled.

The Pasco County university's online poll was conducted March 8-9. All told, the poll reflects responses from 500 likely Republican voters in Florida and 500 likely Democratic voters.

On the Republican side, Sen. Marco Rubio is looking for a crucial home-state win. That win, the poll results indicate, may not happen.

“If he loses Tuesday, he’s effectively done,” Saint Leo University political science professor Frank Orlando said. “Even if he wins, the road is still very difficult, but one could see him gaining some momentum back and surviving process.”

Pollsters also examined how likely Republican voters in Florida would respond if Trump does win the party’s nomination. The results bode well for the Democrats, pollsters found.

A total of 66.6 percent of Florida Republicans said they would vote for Trump in the general election if he’s their party’s nominee. Another 11.2 percent, however, said they would cast their ballots for the Democratic nominee instead. Roughly 15.2 percent were undecided and some 7 percent said they’d sit out the vote this year.

“If Florida is the bellwether we think it is, then the Democratic nominee is likely to win the election,” Saint Leo history Professor Douglas Astolfi said in reference to the poll. That, however, could change if Republicans decide not to stay home and change their minds to back Trump instead.

Undecided voters could still play a large role in how Florida’s Tuesday vote shakes out, pollsters also found. Undecided voters accounted for 12.6 percent of Republican respondents and 13.6 percent on the Democratic side. Undecided Democrats told pollsters they were split on which candidate they were learning toward – Clinton or Sen. Bernie Sanders. Undecided Republicans were leaning more toward Trump at 31.7 percent, the poll found, but Rubio was a close second at 30.2 percent.

For more information about the poll, visit the Saint Leo University Polling Institute online.

The polls open in Florida at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, March 15.

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