Florida Favors Trump, Scott, And DeSantis: New Poll Shows

Photo for illustrative purposes onlyPhoto byDonald J. Trump, Facebook | Rick Scott, Facebook | Ron DeSantis, Facebook

America is just under two months out from Election Day, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce released poll results on Friday, August 30, that show Floridians are favoring republican candidates and policies.

When the statistics were last calculated on July 31, 2024, Florida had 5,325,279 registered Republicans, 4,329,205 registered Democrats, and 3,913,071 registered No Party Affiliation (NPA) or minor party voters. That is nearly 1 million more Republican voters than Democratic voters.

As such, it should not come as a shock that the poll shows Floridians prefer Donald Trump to Kamala Harris by a seven point margin at 52% to 45%, prefer Rick Scott to Debbie Mucarsel-Powell by a seven point margin at 51% to 44%, and that 55% of Floridians are maintaining approval of DeSantis.

The poll found that Trump’s lead can be largely attributed to Florida’s NPA voters. Florida’s NPA voters favor Trump to Harris by a 10 point margin at 53% to 43%.

As for Scott’s lead, it can be attributed to 88% of Republican voters, as well as favor with NPA and older voters. Florida’s NPA voters prefer Scott to Mucarsel-Powell by an 11 point margin at 51% to 40%. Among Florida’s older voters, Scott is preferred to Mucarsel-Powell by a 13 point margin at 54% to 41%.

Regarding the policies, Florida is falling short by just 1% of votes to pass Amendment 3, which would legalize recreational marijuana. At least 60% of voters need to approve this amendment for it to pass.

Furthermore, the poll shows that only 37% of Florida’s voters think that the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies have improved the economy. In contrast, 54% believe that these policies have worsened the economy. Of this 54% of Floridians, 53% of NPA voters, 50% of Hispanic voters, and 56% of older voters are in agreement.

Additionally, 59% of Florida voters expressed dislike for how the Biden-Harris Administration handled the Israeli-Hamas war. Of Florida’s Republican, Hispanic, and NPA voters, 76%, 60%, and 62% disapprove, respectively.

Overall, Florida’s voters seemed optimistic about Florida’s future by a margin of 47% to 45%. However, they also concluded by a 60% to 30%, or two-to-one, margin that the nation as a whole “is currently on the wrong track”.

As per the poll, Florida voters are most worried about property insurance, illegal immigration, job creation and the economy, and abortion at 16%, 12%, 12%, and 9%, respectively. The poll was also able to group the concern with these issues by demographic.

Property insurance is most concerning to male, NPA, Caucasian, and Hispanic voters, and affordable housing specifically is most concerning to voters under 40 years old. Illegal immigration is most concerning to Republican and older voters. Job creation and the economy is most concerning female and Black voters. Abortion is most concerning to democratic voters.

This poll was conducted by Cherry Communications between August 15 and 26, 2024, during phone interviews of probable voters. A total of 600 people were polled: 254 Republicans, 217 Democrats, and 129 potential voters of other affiliations. The margin of error is estimated at +/- 4%.

Florida Chamber Political Operations team that “constantly analyzes ChamberHub, the Florida Chamber’s exclusive voter file, to recognize trends in Florida’s changing electorate” organized this poll.

In a statement, Florida Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mark Wilson said that “Florida voters are much more confident in Florida than in the nation…which is not surprising considering that Florida created 1 in every 11 new jobs nationally over the last year and 1 in 6 new jobs nationally in the month of July alone”.

Wilson believes that this “job growth is not accidental” and that Floridians “must continue electing pro-jobs candidates…as we grow from the 16th to the 10th largest global economy by 2030”.
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Article by Ema Tibbetts