Latest Harris-Trump poll highlights danger for former president in Florida
SOURCE: USA Today
The red wave that washed over Florida in recent years might not be as large as it once seemed, if a new presidential survey is any indication.
Vice President Kamala Harris is within “striking distance” of former President Donald Trump in Florida, according to the pollster behind a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University/WSVN-TV survey of 500 likely voters released Tuesday.
Trump leads Harris by 5 percentage points in the survey, but that’s closer than other recent polls and much less than Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 19-point blowout in 2022. It’s also within the poll’s 4.4% margin of error and another sign of the enthusiasm Harris has generated nationwide within the Democratic Party since she entered the race.
Trump received the support of 47% of those in the USA TODAY/Suffolk/WSVN-TV Florida survey, compared with 42% for Harris and 5% for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with 5% undecided or refusing to disclose their choice. The poll was conducted by phone from Aug. 7 to Aug. 11.
Once viewed as the nation’s largest swing state and fiercely contested during presidential elections, Florida’s battleground status increasingly has been in doubt after Trump bested President Joe Biden by 3.3 percentage points in 2020, DeSantis dominated two years later and Democrats fell dramatically behind Republicans in voter registration.
Florida now has 1 million more registered Republicans than Democrats, a tough hurdle for any Democratic candidate to overcome.
“Given those circumstances I was surprised that Harris is within striking distance being only 5 points down,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
