Mitch Perry
A new poll shows that a majority of Floridians would prefer that neither Jeb Bush nor Marco Rubio should run for president next year.
Only 37 percent of Florida voters think Bush should run for president, while 52 percent said he shouldn’t, according to the Public Policy Polling survey published Tuesday. The numbers for Rubio are almost identical: 35 percent said he should run and 51 percent said he should sit it out.
PPP found neither Republican to be wildly popular in the Sunshine State. Rubio’s approval ratings in the survey are 45 percent favorable, 40 percent unfavorable. With Bush, it’s 45 percent positive, 42 percent negative.
However, they’re actually two of the few politicians in the survey from either party with a higher favorable than unfavorable rating.
Hillary Clinton gets a 41 percent favorable rating in the survey, with 51 percent showing an unfavorable ranking.
Clinton, though, leads every Republican in the field in a head-to-head matchup 19 months before the presidential election. She’s up 48-46 percent over Rubio in Florida, and up 47-44 percent over Bush.
“Hillary Clinton leads Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush in their own home state,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling. “Floridians have a pretty tepid attitude toward Rubio and Bush to begin with, and aren’t excited about them seeking the White House.”
Among Republicans only, Bush is most popular in Florida, with 25 percent support. But Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has made up a lot of ground since the last PPP survey was conducted. He comes in second with 17 percent. Rubio comes in third with 15 percent, and retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson is fourth with 12 percent support. The last time PPP surveyed was last summer, when Bush was at 30 percent, and Walker was only at 7 percent.
Next up is another Florida resident, Mike Huckabee, with 7 percent support. The only candidate to officially announce his candidacy for president, Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, comes in at 6 percent. Chris Christie and Rand Paul are at 4 percent, and Rick Perry comes in last with 3 percent.
Among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton dominates the field, getting 58 percent support from Floridians. Vice President Joe Biden is at 14 points. Elizabeth Warren gets 10 percent. Bernie Sanders is at 3 percent. Martin O’Malley at 2 percent, and former Virginia Sen.Jim Webb is at 1 percent.
PPP surveyed 923 registered Florida voters, including 425 Republican primary voters and 371 Democratic primary voters, from March 19 to 22. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 3.2%, +/- 4.8 for the GOP sample, and +/- 5.1% for the Democratic portion.
