With Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton heading into their party conventions, polls this week gave conflicting pictures about the presidential race in Florida.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll released Friday showed Clinton leading Trump by a margin of 44 percent to 37 percent in a head-to-head matchup in Florida, one of the most closely watched states in the country. Clinton leads the Republican by a margin of 41 percent to 36 percent when Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are added.
Those results came two days after Quinnipiac University released a poll showing Trump with a three-point edge over Clinton in a head-to-head race in Florida and a five-point lead with Johnson and Stein included.
Polls can be affected by a wide range of variables, such as the demographics, party breakdowns and numbers of voters surveyed.
But the results of the NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll offer a rosier picture for Clinton and Democrats than the Quinnipiac poll suggested. Along with showing Clinton ahead in the presidential race, the Marist poll indicated that Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has a three-point edge over Democrat Patrick Murphy in Florida’s U.S. Senate race — a far-narrower margin than in the Quinnipiac poll, which said Rubio was ahead of Murphy by a margin of 50 percent to 37 percent.
The polls came as Trump prepares to accept the GOP nomination during a national convention next week in Cleveland and Clinton readies to accept the Democratic nomination later in the month in Philadelphia.
Lee M. Miringoff, director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, said in comments released with Friday’s poll numbers that Trump is “playing catchup” against Clinton in Florida, Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia. The institute, part of New York-based Marist College, also released results Friday showing Clinton ahead in those three other battleground states.
“The driving force behind voters’ choices is the negative impressions they have of both Trump and Clinton,” Miringoff said. “Clinton’s single-digit lead in each of these states is due to her slight advantage in how voters perceive the two candidates.”
A key factor in the race likely will be independent voters, with a Marist analysis saying independents in all four of the states have not “coalesced behind either candidate.” The poll showed Clinton leading by a margin of 38 percent to 35 percent among Florida independents in a head-to-head matchup with Trump. But Trump holds a three-point lead among independents when the Libertarian and Green Party candidates are added to the mix.
The Marist poll included 871 registered Florida voters, who were surveyed from July 5 through Monday. The margin of error is 3.3 percentage points.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
Veteran says
Don’t believe polls.
Layla says
Amazing that so many heard the Director of the FBI admit she committed treason and are willing to vote for her. I do not believe this poll. I don’t believe anybody wants more of this, no matter what your political party or curse.
Barry Hartmann says
Not for long crooked Hillary!!!!!!
Veteran says
Pollsters often poll more democrats than republicans or vice versa. Believe it on Election Day; or maybe not. Depends on how many dead people voted!
norbert says
No one heard Comey admit that she committed treason!
What the end result came out was that out of over 30,00 e-mails that were handled , only 3 were marked classified. Those 3 were incorrectly marked, even the most expert handler of classified mail would not be able to know they were classified.
Also she was never hacked as erroneously reported. My records with OPM [ office of personnel management ] might have been . They sent me a letter that everyone was insured up to a million if they found they were hacked . Who should we prosecute ?? I’d give my social # to Hillary before any other government agency.
Youth says
She didn’t commit treason. At best she made a technological error. She wasn’t indicted for a reason. If you tell a lie long enough it doesn’t become true. If Hillary is crooked what about the bushes? I’d rather have someone who made a mistake then a sociopathic robber Baron with no connection to reality offering no social ideas, one who is epitomizing the excesses of American wealth
Drumpf says
Go Hillary!
Knightwatch says
I’m trying hard to keep an even keel. Polls go one way, then another. I can only hope Floridians will ultimately vote with their brains, not their a**holes, and reject Trump’s ignorance, his demagoguery and, his message of fear, hate and exclusion.
Hillary may not be perfect. No human is. But she is knowledgeable, experienced and controlled. Exactly what we need in these troubled times.
Ben Hogarth says
You can always tell the people who get their news from one media source – they sound like broken records.
These are the same people who have to lie to themselves on a daily basis just to get up in the morning. Why should we expect them to utilize a reasoning capacity beyond recorded scripts?
Someone make sure they register themselves with the FAA – a new requirement for DRONES
A little Common Sense please says
I’m sorry, but I don’t trust her or like her policies about gun control and her ties to the big banks, and in these perilous times with her all but open border policy. I’m not at all in agreement with Trump, but I’d rather vote for him than her. He needs to shut his big mouth and use his brain more. I still say Trump is the lessor of two evils.
just me says
I’m trying hard to keep an even keel. Polls go one way, then another. I can only hope Floridians will ultimately vote with their brains, not their a**holes, and reject Hillary’s ignorance of the law, her demagoguery and, her message of fear, hate and exclusion.
Trump may not be perfect. No human is. But he is knowledgeable, experienced and controlled. Exactly what we need in these troubled times.
I think its better this way. ;)
barbara schaeffer says
i am a republican who will not vote for donald trump. i will either stay home or vote for hillary