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Andrew Gillum and Rick Scott hold slight leads in new poll

Florida Southern's survey also shows President Trump to be a big factor with Florida voters.
 
Published Oct. 8, 2018|Updated Oct. 8, 2018

Democrat Andrew Gillum has a 3-point lead over Republican Ron DeSantis in Florida's race for governor, and Republican Rick Scott leads Democrat Bill Nelson by 1.5 points in the race for U.S. Senate. In both cases, the leader's advantage is within the poll's margin of error.

Those are the results of a new survey by Florida Southern College's Center for Polling and Policy Research. The Lakeland-based college says its students contacted registered voters by phone from Oct. 1-5.

Read the entire poll here.

The poll shows Gillum at 47 percent and DeSantis at 44 percent. Gillum is far ahead among Hispanic voters by 63 to 24 percent and up by 13 points, 46-33 percent, among independent voters. DeSantis holds a 14-point advantage among men and Gillum is up 15 points with women.

The Senate race is closer in the poll with Scott at 46 percent and Nelson at 44.5 percent. Scott leads with men, whites and older voters, and Nelson is ahead among blacks, Hispanics, women and younger voters.

The poll is in line with other recent Florida surveys in showing deep and close divisions over President Donald Trump's performance. A total of 48 percent of voters approve of Trump's job and 48 percent disapprove, with independents disapproving of Trump by 55 percent to 43 percent.

Among all voters, 54 percent said Trump will be "extremely" or "very" important to their electoral choices.

The generic ballot question for Congress was a virtual tie, with 42 percent favoring Republicans and 42 percent favoring Democrats.

The poll of 499 respondents included 476 likely voters and a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.