Mitch Perry
It’s good news and bad news for Jeb Bush and his supporters in a new Quinnipiac survey of Republican primary voters in Florida.
The former governor continues to lead the field of potential 2016 candidates with 24 percent. That’s 9 percentage points more than the next candidate in Florida, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who comes in at 15 percent. Marco Rubio is a close third with 12 percent.
However that’s an 8-point drop for Bush since the last time Quinnipiac polled Florida voters two months ago, when he topped the field with 32 percent of the vote.
“Bush has a lead over the field in his home state of Florida, but it’s not anywhere near insurmountable, ” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll.
Ben Carson is fourth in the poll in Florida with 8 percent; Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is at 7 percent; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is at 6 percent; Kentucky U.S. Sen Rand Paul at 4 percent; former Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 2 percent; and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are are 1 percent.
Rubio is the top second choice for Florida Republicans after Bush, getting 21 percent support.
On the Democratic side, no surprise: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to dominate the field with 65 percent. Vice President Joe Biden is next at 11 percent. Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is at 7 percent. Vermont socialist U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is at 3 percent. Former Virginia U.S. Sen. Jim Webb comes in at 2 percent.
Quinnipiac also did surveys in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In the Buckeye state, Kasich gets the native son vote with 20 percent, with Walker, Cruz and Huckabee at 9 percent each, Bush is at 8 percent, compared with 10 percent Feb. 4, and Carson at 8 percent.
In Pennsylvania: Walker is at 14 percent with 9 percent each for Carson, former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and Bush, who was at 12 percent this past month.
The Florida Quinnipiac survey included 428 registered Republicans with a margin of sampling error of +/- 4.7 percentage points and 344 registered Democrats with a margin of sampling error of +/- 5.3 percentage points. It took place from March 17 to 28 through Florida.
