A new 2020 poll released hours before Donald Trump formally launches his re-election bid in Florida shows the president trailing Demcratic White House hopefuls Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in the nation’s largest swing state.
The former vice president leads Trump among Florida voters by 50-41 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday ahead of the president’s campaign kickoff rally at Orlando’s Amway Center.
Trump also trails the Vermont senator by a 48-42 percent margin, while head-to-head match-ups pitting the president against other top-polling Democratic rivals are “too close to call,” according to the survey.
“Florida Republicans have won the last five major statewide elections, all by very close margins, but Sunshine State Democrats see these very early numbers as a sign that their losing streak might be coming to an end,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement — adding that Trump “basically ties other leading Democratic challengers.”
Trump enjoys deeply personal ties to Florida, his second home state — capturing its 29 electoral votes in the 2016 presidential election and establishing his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach as his “Southern White House” since assuming office. He often retreats there on weekends to cavort with members of his private club and to play rounds of golf with celebrities, confidants and government officials.
But a majority of Florida voters, 51 percent, disapprove of Trump’s job performance as president, according to the poll. Roughly 54 percent of respondents, however, said they were better off financially today than they were in 2016.
Earlier Tuesday, the Orlando Sentinel announced its “non-endorsement” of the president for a second term, with the paper’s editorial board writing that “there’s no point pretending we would ever recommend that readers vote for Trump."
Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University has polled Florida for decades, though with a mixed track record. In 2018, the school’s final poll had both Democrats in major statewide races — Sen. Bill Nelson and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum — leading by 7 percentage points; both lost by fractions of a point.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine