Mitch Perry
What a difference a well-publicized announcement can make.
For the first time this year, Marco Rubio is tied with Jeb Bush in a presidential poll in Florida. A Mason-Dixon survey released overnight shows Rubio with 31 percent support from Republicans, with Bush at 30 percent.
The poll of 400 Floridians was taken Tuesday through Thursday and reported exclusively today by Politico’s Marc Caputo.
Rubio has dominated media coverage this week, undoubtedly helping his poll numbers. He’s done interviews with many major news outlets, and his announcement has dominated cable news network programs for days.
What will be more interesting perhaps, is to see where Rubio polls in national surveys, where he has struggled this year.
Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker acknowledges he hasn’t polled Florida GOP voters recently, so Rubio’s high numbers may not simply be attributed to his announcement, but also a reflection of Bush’s popularity dropping.
A handful of voters who Florida Politics spoke with at the Rubio announcement told us that while they had an open mind about the GOP field at this time, they liked younger candidates like Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
The Mason-Dixon poll finds Cruz was polling at 8 percent in Florida, Paul at 7 percent and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 2 percent. Coker didn’t poll all the other candidates but gave an “other” option to respondents.
The poll also shows that Bush has a small 45-42 percent lead over Hillary Clinton in a one-on-one match. Clinton leads Rubio 46-44 percent.
