Bill Nelson Polling Higher Than Rick Scott in new Quinnipiac Poll

A new Quinnipiac poll taken after Hurricane Michael is showing that Senator Bill Nelson is ahead of Governor Rick Scott with 52% over 46%.

In addition, 2% of those polled said that they were undecided.

Among women, Senator Nelson has a 20-point lead with 59% to Scott’s 39%, and Senator Nelson also has a 22-point advantage among independent voters with 60% to Scott’s 38%.

However, this week, Governor Scott’s campaign released a campaign memo showing an internal poll and interviews with 2,200 likely voters that were conducted from October 14-18. In the campaign memo, Governor Scott is ahead by 5 points with 51% over 46%.

Jackie Schutz Zeckman, Scott’s campaign manager, comments that “Gov. Scott is really starting to break away in these final 15 days, but we cannot let up. Fifteen days is still a lot of time.”

Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, explained in a news release that “At this point, Sen. Nelson’s six-point overall lead is built on his large margin among independent voters, 60-38 percent. If that margin holds up, the senator will be difficult to beat. Moreover, Sen. Nelson’s 20-point advantage among women is twice Gov. Scott’s 10-point edge among men.”

In addition, the new Quinnipiac poll shows that Senator Nelson has a better favorability rating than Governor Scott. 51% have a favorable opinion of Senator Nelson and 41% have an unfavorable opinion. In contrast, Governor Scott has a 45% favorable and 50% favorable rating.

Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, noted that “Nelson is just better liked. Florida likely voters view him favorably by 10 percentage points, and see Gov. Scott unfavorably by 5 points.”

This comes at a time when Governor Nelson was polling higher than Senator Nelson, and surveys indicated that Governor Scott was better-liked and better known among Puerto Ricans.

With the information released this week, the Real Clear Politics average indicates that Senator Nelson has a 2.4% advantage in the race.