Biden Holds Slight Lead over Trump in Florida Poll, but State Still Up for Grabs

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has a slight lead over President Donald Trump with a little more than six months until Election Day.

A Quinnipiac University Poll released this week found 46% of registered voters favoring Biden to 42% for Trump.

Florida is the largest state that could go either way in the presidential election, awarding 29 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. The state consistently produces close statewide elections, with key contests often decided by small margins.

In 2016, Trump won 49% of the vote statewide to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 47.8%.

Biden became the certain Democratic nominee on March 17, when he had a slew of primary victories including in Florida, where he won 61.9% of the vote.

Florida Democrats overwhelmingly support him in November, the poll found. Democrats favor the former vice president 91% to 4%.

Republicans are just as supportive of Trump, favoring him 89% to 7%.

Biden has a slight lead over Trump among no party affiliation/independent voters, 44% to 37%.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,385 Florida registered voters. Closer to Election Day, pollsters switch to likely voters in an attempt to better focus on people expected to vote.

The survey, conducted from April 16 to 20 with live callers to landlines and cellphones, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The sample size for smaller groups, such as Democrats, Republicans and independents, is smaller and the margin of error is higher.

Pollster ratings from FiveThirtyEight.com give Quinnipiac a B plus for its data gathering and accuracy.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @browardpolitics

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