Notches narrow lead

Poll: Biden notches narrow lead in Florida

The Democratic nominee is ahead by single digits in the president’s adopted home state.

By QUINT FORGEY

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by single digits in Florida, according to a new poll, earning the support of more than half of likely voters surveyed in the nation’s largest swing state.

An NBC News/Marist poll released Thursday — five days before Election Day — reports that 51 percent of Florida likely voters polled prefer Biden, while 47 percent favor Trump.

The former vice president’s slight advantage of 4 percentage points falls within the poll’s margin of sampling error of plus-or-minus 4.4 percentage points.

Still, Biden appears to have gained ground since last month, when the previous version of the survey had the Democratic nominee and the Republican incumbent in a dead heat among likely voters, 48-48 percent.

The RealClearPolitics average of Florida polling, which includes surveys from Oct. 20-27, shows Biden and Trump tied in the state.

Trump has made a fierce effort to defend his adopted home state in recent months after winning Florida’s 29 electoral votes by 1.3 percentage points in 2016. The state has been carried by the eventual winner of each of the past six presidential elections.

But Biden has grown increasingly competitive in Florida, as well as in the other Sun Belt battlegrounds of Georgia and Texas — traditionally Republican strongholds. Trump, for his part, has sought to expand his 2016 map to flip Minnesota and Nevada, which were won by then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton four years ago.

The NBC News/Marist poll was conducted Oct. 25-27, surveying 743 Florida likely voters.