Janelle Irwin Taylor
In a major divergence from national polling, former New York City Mayor and billionaire philanthropist Mike Bloomberg is sitting in the No. 2 spot in Florida’s Democratic presidential primary.
A St. Pete Polls survey conducted Sunday and Monday among 2,590 Democratic voters from across the state showed former Vice President Joe Biden with a commanding 41% lead. But Bloomberg, not Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, landed in second place with 17% support.
The poll was commissioned by Florida Politics.
The results released Tuesday show a staunch contrast to another national Quinnipiac University poll out the same day showing Bloomberg in fourth place with 8% support, though that’s still an improvement from where he had been.
Though the results only represent Florida voters, they are still significant. Not only is Florida a major swing state and a big pick up in the primary, St. Pete Polls was the first polling outfit to publicly forecast Trump winning Florida’s GOP presidential primary and one of the first to publicly predict Gov. Ron DeSantis beating former Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in 2018.
The poll suggests Bloomberg’s surge in attention to Florida in recent weeks might be paying off. Bloomberg held a pair of events in Tampa Sunday including a meeting with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor at a public diner and a rally in downtown. He then held another pair of events in Miami.
Bloomberg has also been building out his Florida campaign, adding some strong political talent to his team this week. He hired Reggie Cardozo, former Senior Adviser to Florida House Victory, as his Florida Senior Adviser as well as Ron Bilbao as Deputy State Director, Caroline Rowland as Communications Director, Brandon Philipczyk as Operations Manager and Maria Bilbao as Digital Director.
Ron Bilbao has held roles with the Florida Education Association, SEIU and ACLU. Rowland is the former Communications Director for the Florida Democratic Party (FDP). Philipczyk is the FDP’s former COO and worked as the Florida Operations Director for Barack Obama back in 2012. Mario Bilbao is the former Director of Florida Watch and the President and owner of Breakthrough Communications.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg has vowed to spend as much of his money as it takes to defeat Donald Trump, including by promising to retain his campaign staff to work to elect the Democratic nominee even if it is not him. Online betting market data puts Bloomberg as the most likely to be able to defeat Trump in a general election, though he would have to overcome an anticipated deficit in the primary.
The St. Pete Polls survey put Sanders in third place with 9% followed by Warren with 7%. Former South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg trailed with 6% followed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar with 5%. Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer bottomed out the survey with 2% support. Undecided voters accounted for 10% of the survey.
Biden performed best among black voters with 57% saying they would vote for him. He performed the worst among white, non-Hispanic voters with only 33% support.
Bloomberg performed the best among Hispanic voters with 21% support and worst among black voters with just 13%.
Sanders’ support was nearly even between white and black voters with only 0.6% more white support while Warren performed much better among white voters 9% to 4%.
Sanders had the second most significant break between men and women with 10% support from men and 9% from women. Most candidates’ support differed among gender by less than a point, suggesting Warren’s claim that Sanders told her he didn’t think a women could win might have affected some Florida women.
Buttigieg had a higher disparity between men and women though with nearly 7% support from men and just 5% support from women.
Broken down by age, Sanders not surprisingly polled the best among young voters with 16% support compared to 13% from voters age 30-49. Support dropped to 8 percent among those between 50 and 69 and to 5% among voters 70 and older.
Biden, meanwhile, performed the strongest among the oldest demographic with 47%.
Florida’s Democratic Presidential Preference Primary is March 17.
24 comments
John Kociuba
January 29, 2020 at 5:41 am
Dear Citizens ~
Re: Communist Jews
What’s said about these individuals is their lack of humanity. Indeed the truest form of genocide was “Jews against Jews” (SHEM v CAIN) the Communist Atheist v Orthodox Church.
Murdered 200 million in 150 years. Exacerbating French Revolution, U.S. Civil War, Russian Revolution, Chinese Revolution, South American Revolution, etc.
Michael Bloomberg is another George Soros protected and cheered by Communist Jews who’s soul purpose is a Secular Israel. Michael Bloomberg bought Virginia and now Virginia might end up in Civil War. Michael Bloomberg’s “Anti-2nd Amendment” campaign violates 1918 Sedition Act which is not covered under the 1st Amendment because he’s engaging in “Imminent Lawless Actions!”
Furthermore who were these 930 Jews cheering on “GUN CONFISCATION” at Michael Bloomberg’s Miami rally? Talk about stupid! Michael Bloomberg should’ve showed up in a German 1930 “Cattle Car!”
gdrkn
January 29, 2020 at 12:30 pm
Okay it’s obvious you’re a feeble-minded scared little wingnut. Change the tinfoil in your MAGA cap take the meth pipe out of your mouth and clean your trailer.
John Kociuba
January 29, 2020 at 7:48 pm
A 5 second research you commie puke.
P.S. i don’t use social media any longer. You damn dirty apes suck my brains out.
gdrkn
January 30, 2020 at 1:56 am
You’re not going to cry, are you? You sound like you’re going to cry you scared little man LMAO!
gdrkn
January 29, 2020 at 12:36 pm
Saw your FB page John. You’re a pathetic little worm aren’t you?
John Kociuba
January 29, 2020 at 6:02 am
Dear Citizens ~
Re: Propaganda
Yes. Now before any academic lab monkey comes on here calling me and “Anti-Semite” for truing to save Orthodox Judaism from their vile evil Communist cousins better research Israel and David Ben Gurian!
Oh yes! See Israeli Mapai/Progressive/Labor Party is the Communist Party! Benjamin Netanyahu belongs to the Likud Party which is the Capitalist/Orthodox Group but the Likud Party had few Prime Ministers.
Yes. Most of the Israeli Prime Ministers were Communists…AND YOU FUNDED THEM THRU AMERICAN TAXATION!
gdrkn
January 29, 2020 at 12:34 pm
It seems easy to make a monkey out of you with your half baked conspiracy theories
Susan Henry
January 29, 2020 at 9:12 am
I’ll stick with Sanders, thank you. And I’m old.
gdrkn
January 29, 2020 at 12:32 pm
Good for you old timer but Sanders’s agenda will never be passed. I’m young and I live in the real world so I’m with Bloomberg or Biden
TM
February 1, 2020 at 4:39 pm
I agree. And unlike Sanders, Bloomberg hasn’t slung mud at other Ds. Sanders barely supported Clinton after she won the nomination, and as a result, according to one survey, 25% of Sanders voters sat out the 2016 election, accounting for Trump being president now. Sanders is divisive and a huge chunk of his voters won’t support a moderate candidate, which risks giving us Trump Term II. Contrast that with Bloomberg, who has declared that no matter who wins the nomination, he will support them and campaign for them and spend his own money for them.
Joseph
January 30, 2020 at 8:59 am
America’s Dad, Bernie Sanders for president!
gdrkn
January 30, 2020 at 11:14 am
More like America’s cranky old socialist grandfather shaking his fist and yelling “hey you kids get out of my yard” LOL
gdrkn
January 29, 2020 at 12:32 pm
Good for you old timer but Sanders’s agenda will never be passed. I’m young and I live in the real world so I’m with Bloomberg or Biden
Greg Parke
January 29, 2020 at 3:22 pm
Obviously you are still crapping yellow. Biden and Bloomberg are corporate democrats who will protect and serve the status quo. Bernie’s Revolution is more than running for president, it will change the way things have been done for the last forty years and give back the power to the people and take it away from big money people and corporations. You are obviously ignorant of the history of all of this, so change your diaper and do some homework…
John Kociuba
January 29, 2020 at 7:52 pm
Greg,
Re: Bernie Sanders
You realize he’s wacko communist that says anything and everything absent all mathematics, right?
Bernie Sanders loved Gus Hall, Saul Alinksky, Stalin, Hugo Chavez, Earl Browder, Fidel Castro & Che Gurera
I would laugh at you but i feel sorry for you.
Joseph
January 30, 2020 at 9:04 am
Dude what are you talking about? Bernie Sanders is a Social Democrat modeled after FDR. You know, the president that was so popular with the American people that they had to implement term limits after they realized how much the working class supports social democratic reforms. You’re just making things up, he supports none of the people you named. He aims for a social democracy much like they have in Denmark and Norway. Two countries that beat the US in just about every relevant metric.
I would laugh at you but I feel sorry for you.
gdrkn
January 30, 2020 at 11:17 am
He’s no FDR LOL! Warren would be more of an FDR type in my view Sanders is McGovern and a sure loser that’s why Trump wants to run against him. He’s Dumb Donald’s candidate of choice.
gdrkn
January 30, 2020 at 2:05 am
ooh lookie here a Bernie Bro LOL! the only thing worse is a Trump chump. Equally as delusional as well. Bernie isn’t being elected King you ridiculous hipster doofus. He will find as he does now in congress, that he has no support for his budget-busting dream of an agenda. He will be able to do nothing much as he does now in the Senate. If you don’t know this then it is you who’s an ignorant and unrealistic dimwit
Pedro
January 29, 2020 at 11:38 pm
Bloomberg’s my backup plan, Biden’s just too middle of the road for me.
Joseph
January 30, 2020 at 9:08 am
This article is a joke. It just heaps fawning praise on Bloomberg and is not intended to inform anyone, its aim is to mold public opinion in favor of a candidate. The author is an obvious Republican and is, to no one’s surprise, supporting the Republican-lite “Democratic” candidate.
gdrkn
January 30, 2020 at 11:33 am
I love you far-left Bernie Bros who presume that your opinion reflects the majority of Americans. You need to break out of your far-left echo chamber as you are out of step with the American public in some kind of extreme left-wing internet circle jerk. Trump is hoping to run against Sanders because he can beat him and Dumb Donald fears Biden/Bloomberg because he can’t
Joseph
January 30, 2020 at 12:27 pm
You’re embarrassing yourself. Bernie Sanders is running at a permanent disadvantage and is still destroying his opponents and setting the bar for the Democratic agenda. Trump is a faux populist and we’ve already seen what happens when Trump runs against an establishment Democrat. Look at the recent polling in Texas if you want to see who wins in a general election between Trump and Bernie. Bernie is up 12 points in that poll and he consistently wins across the nation against Trump in nearly every poll.
Just because you want something to be true doesn’t mean it is… Try doing your homework next time you decide you decide you want to talk to other adults about politics.
gdrkn
January 31, 2020 at 7:05 am
Correction Bernie Bro an establishment Democrat with negatives as high as his own due to 2 decades of ridiculous smears like she had Vince Foster killed etc.. Bernie got demolished by Clinton the election was over when he lost NY and got demolished in the South. He just stayed in the race and was one of the causes for the loss. It’s obvious that Trump wants to run against Bernie because he would be the easiest to beat and his comments reflect that. The fact is Bernie in all his years in the Senate has no legislative accomplishments as his agenda is unpassable and it would be the same under a Sanders administration. Enjoy your delusional internet echo chamber in the real world he is a loser.
As you stated “Just because you want something to be true doesn’t mean it is… Try doing your homework next time you decide you decide you want to talk to other adults about politics” and you’ll realize your movement is largely an internet based pipe dream as he performs poorly with key constituencies in the real world and is an election night loser.
TM
February 1, 2020 at 4:45 pm
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/01/bernie-sanders-electable-trump-2020-nomination-popular-socialism.html
Running Sanders against Trump would be an act of insanity. You don’t understand how his polling will crater once Trump flies around the country talking about “Crazy Commie Bernie”. It’ll be a lights-out landslide.
McGovern v. Nixon. You’re probably a bit young. Look it up.
Comments are closed.