Monmouth poll: Biden up 5 points on Trump in Florida
September 15, 2020
Democratic nominee Joe Biden holds a slight edge over President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Florida, according to a Monmouth University poll released Tuesday.
Biden leads Trump 50-45 among 428 registered voters surveyed between September 10-13. Voters over the age of 65 are essentially split between the two, with Trump’s 49-47 sitting within the poll’s 4.7 percentage point margin of error.
Monmouth’s poll shows Biden leading among Florida Latinos 58-32, roughly in line with Hillary Clinton’s 27-point margin in 2016, though she lost the state to Trump overall. A recent poll by a Democratic Latino research firm reported Biden’s advantage among Hispanics was smaller, 53-37 percent, a finding that alarmed Florida Democrats who have been concerned about the amount of outreach the campaign is doing to attract these voters.
Trump holds a substantial lead over Biden among white voters, 56-39 percent. However Trump won the same group by more than 30 points in 2016, and Biden’s support in central Florida and areas outside of Democrats’ traditional strongholds in the southern part of the state is stronger than Clinton’s was in 2016.
“The current picture has Biden maintaining a typical Democratic advantage in southern Florida while making notable inroads in other parts of the state,” Monmouth polling director Patrick Murray said in a release.
One major warning sign for the president is the level of support among military voters, where Trump has a 4-point lead over Biden among veterans and those in military households. However among all survey respondents, a larger percentage — 70 percent — said that Biden respects the military and veterans, compared to just 56 percent for Trump.
The poll was conducted shortly after an explosive report in The Atlantic, parts of which were subsequently backed up by other outlets, that detailed accusations of Trump belittling top military officers and denigrating soldiers’ sacrifice — accusations the White House has steadfastly denied — as well as similar comments recorded by veteran journalist Bob Woodward that were made public.
“Are the incumbent’s alleged negative statements about the military responsible? We can’t say for certain since we don’t have a prior trend on this question,” Murray said. “But it sure can’t be helping.”
Biden traveled to Tampa, Florida, and hammered away at Trump for those reported comments in hopes of further chipping away at that support.
"Quite frankly it makes me very upset the way he gets in front of a camera and talks about how much he has done for veterans, and then turns around and insults our service members and fallen heroes when the camera is off," Biden said at a veterans roundtable discussion held at a local community college.
A majority of voters, 53 percent, also disapproved of the job Trump has done handling the Covid-19 pandemic, with only 44 percent saying he has done a good job.
A Florida Atlantic University poll also released Tuesday found that Biden leads by 3 points, 49 percent to 46 percent, among likely voters with 5 percent undecided. The results were within the survey's margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.
However there were some promising signs for Trump. FAU survey respondents found that 72 percent of Trump voters were “extremely excited” to cast ballots for the president, compared to 60 percent of those saying they would vote for Biden. In a statement that accompanied the poll's release, the pollster said that that “undecideds are breaking for Trump 4:1.”
Source: https://www.politico.com/
Comment(s)