Scott, Gillum hold narrow leads in the latest political survey

by | Oct 8, 2018


A poll released Monday by Florida Southern College’s Center for Polling and Policy Research  continues to show the races for governor and U.S. Senate in Florida to be tight. The survey shows Democrat Andrew Gillum with a 3-point lead over his Republican opponent, Ron DeSantis. In the race for U.S. Senate, Gov. Rick Scott with a 1.5-point leaver over Sen.. Bill Nelson

The leads in both of those contests fall within the poll’s margin of error.

In the race for governor, Gillum leads DeSantis 47 percent to 44 percent. Gillum holds a large 63  percent to 24 percent lead over DeSantis among Hispanic voters, while leading independent voters by 13 points.

DeSantis leads among women by 14 percent, while Gillum leads women by 15 points.

The poll of 499 respondents included 476 likely voters. It has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

In the Senate race, the Florida Southern survey shows Scott with a 46 percent to 44.5 percent lead. Scott outperformed Nelson among white, male and older voters. Nelson did better than Scott black and Hispanic voters, as well as among women and young voters.

The poll also measured Florida voters views of President Donald Trump’s job performance. A total of 48 percent approve of the job Trump has done as president, while 48 percent disapprove. Among all voters, 54 percent said Trump will be “extremely” or “very” important to them in terms of who they’ll vote for.

The Florida Southern poll reflects what other recent surveys have shown in the two contests. Most polls have given narrow leads to both Nelson and Scott, representing a toss-up when you factor in the margin of error for the surveys. In the governor’s race, Gillum has consistently led by a narrow margin. One poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University two weeks ago did show Gillum holding his widest margin with a 9-point lead.

1 Comment

  1. Ken

    If Gillum gets elected this state will be in trouble. Big business will leave the state and then who will carry the burden. Everyone else. He can not get elected he will ruin this state.