Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
Another day, another poll showing Sen. Marco Rubio ahead in the Sunshine State’s U.S. Senate race.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows Rubio has a 6 percentage point lead over Rep. Patrick Murphy. According to the poll, 50 percent of respondents backed Rubio, compared to 44 percent for Murphy. Five percent of voters said they either didn’t know who they were voting for or were voting for someone else.
The poll of 626 likely Florida voters has a margin of error of 3.9 percent.
The new Quinnipiac University poll found Rubio has support from 54 percent of independent voters and 87 percent of Republicans. He also leads among white voters with a college degree (56 percent-40 percent) and without a college degree (59 percent-35 percent).
Murphy, the poll found, is supported by 59 percent of non-white voters. He also has the backing of 83 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of Republicans.
“Candidates with a 16-point lead among independent voters rarely lose, and Sen. Rubio, who has that edge over Rep. Patrick Murphy, appears to be pulling away from the challenger,” said Peter A. Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, in a statement. “But anything is possible.”
Murphy does appear to have an edge among those respondents who voted early. According to the poll, 50 percent of respondents who said they voted early backed Murphy, compared to 45 percent who picked Rubio.
The Miami Republican has led in nearly every poll since he announced he was running for re-election in June. Three polls conducted since June 25 showed the two men tied, according to RealClearPolitics. Rubio led in all of the other polls used by RealClearPolitics to calculate the polling average.
