50 percent

Poll: Trump soars to nearly 50 percent in Florida

By Eliza Collins

Donald Trump has the support of nearly one-in-two Republican primary voters in Florida according to a new Florida Atlantic University Poll out Wednesday.

Trump is leading in the state with GOP primary voters by a significant 32-point margin, with 48 percent. His nearest rival is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (16 percent), and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are the only other two in double digits, 11 percent and 10 percent respectively.

Trump’s lead in that survey has been on a rapid rise since September 2015 when he came in at 32 percent, and support for Rubio and Bush in their home state has gradually declined over the course of the last four months. In that September poll Cruz was at 6 percent, Rubio was at 19 percent and Bush held 11 percent of the vote of those surveyed. In November, Trump took 36 percent, followed by Rubio with 18 percent and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson with 15 percent, who dropped to 3 percent in the latest poll.

On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by 36 percentage points, 62 percent to the Vermont senator’s 26 percent. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has 4 percent, up from 2 percent in September. Clinton’s share is slightly down from the last survey in November in which she held 66 percent of the vote. Sanders has been increasing since September when he had 15 percent. In November, Sanders took 22 percent.

All numbers have been rounded up to the nearest full number. The telephone poll was taken Jan. 15-Jan. 18, surveying 383 registered likely Democratic primary voters and 386 registered likely Republican primary voters. Both sample sizes carry have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.