The Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) Center for Political Strategy released its Q3 Statewide General Election Poll with some interesting results. Former President Donald Trump (R) is receiving about the same amount of support from Floridians compared to Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), but Sen. Scott is outpacing Debbie Mucarsel-Powell 10 points compared to President Trump’s seven-point lead.
In the poll, Sen. Scott leads former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL) by a lead of 52-42% while President Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris (D) by a lead of 53-46%. Scott perhaps gains from his spotlight in Florida politics as he has served as a two-term governor and a U.S. Senator for the last five and a half years. Former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell last served in a prominent public office in 2021, giving Scott a major name-recognition advantage.
Also, it would appear obvious that Trump naturally is more of a polarizing figure compared to Scott. Either way, if this poll is accurate, both Trump and Scott have made significant strides to increase their vote share.
“President Trump won Florida by three points in 2020, and, with less than three months to go until Election Day, he appears to be in a very strong position to grow his margin and win Florida for the third time in 2024,” said AIF Vice President of Political Operations Jeremy Sheftel.
Republicans are polling better than Democrats on a majority of policy debates in the Sunshine State, including the economy (49-26%), reducing inflation/everyday costs (43-25%), crime (50-22%), education (41-37%), and protecting personal freedoms (47-40%). However, a considerable amount of voters (36%) believe neither party is doing an effective job of lowering property insurance costs as prices continue to be a high priority.
It is not surprising that Republicans have taken firm control in Florida. Florida has historically been dominated by Democrats. In 1972, the Democrat Party boasted nearly 2.4 million registered voters to the Republicans’ 975,000. However, Republicans took their first advantage during Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) third year in office and exploded to a million-voter surplus as of Aug. 12.
Florida Democrats are largely ignoring the steep voter registration climb they face and are trying to stay positive with their volunteer training efforts.
