Poll: Florida Hispanics favor Joe Biden over Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump

A new poll released Wednesday by the Spanish-language television network Telemundo finds Florida Latino voters favoring Joe Biden over Bernie Sanders heading into next Tuesday’s Florida Democratic presidential primary.

The “Telemundo Poll: State of The Latino Vote in Arizona and Florida” also finds Biden with a solid lead over President Donald Trump if they are matched in November, while the President would have a slight advantage in a matchup with Sanders.

The poll also finds a clear split in the opinions between Cuban-American voters and all other Latino voters in Florida, with Cuban-Americans strongly supporting Trump while Puerto Rican voters and all other Latino voters strongly prefer either Democrat for a November election.

Telemundo also released results of an Arizona survey which finds Sanders leading Biden, and both Democrats strongly favored over Trump, among that state’s Latino voters. That poll did not break out Puerto Rican or Cuban-American voters, as neither group has significant populations in Arizona.

Arizona’s primary also is Tuesday.

In Florida, former Vice President Biden leads Vermont Senator Sanders by 48% to 37% among Hispanic voters.

Biden leads Trump 58% to 38% among Florida’s Hispanic voters, while Trump has a slight 45% to 44% edge over Sanders.

Telemundo’s Florida poll was conducted from March 4 to March 7, with live telephone interviews of 625 registered Latino voters who said they were likely to vote in 2020 elections. The poll has a margin of error of 4% in the general election matchups, and 5% in the Democratic primary.

In Florida, Biden leads Trump 81% to 14% among Puerto Rican voters. Trump leads Biden 70% to 27% among Cuban-American voters. Among all other Florida Hispanics, Biden leads Trump 75% to 21%.

Trump leads Sanders 74% to 19% among Cuban-Americans, while Sanders gets 65% of the Puerto Rican vote and 56% of the vote from other Hispanics in Florida.

With Florida home to a majority of the historically-Republican Cuban-American voters and a Latino population that broadly rejects socialism, Telemundo’s Florida poll reveals that Sanders’ self-description as a democratic socialist has taken a toll on his popularity, with 70% of likely Latino voters in Florida saying they would not vote for a candidate who describes himself as a “socialist,” Telemundo pointed out in a news release.

Biden leads Trump in nearly all other demographic splits among Hispanic voters. Biden leads the President in Central Florida, 66% to 28%; in Tampa Bay, 55% to 39%; and even in southeastern Florida, 55% to 42%. Biden leads among men, 54% to 43%; among women, 62% to 33%; among voters under the age of 50, 61% to 35%; and among voters over 50, 55% to 41%.

Trump overwhelmingly takes Republicans’ votes and Biden overwhelmingly takes Democrats’ votes. Biden leads among independent Hispanic voters in Florida by 59% to 33%.