Poll: Economic issues driving tightening presidential race in Florida
In the latest survey of recent polling, Joe Biden is still clinging to his lead over Donald Trump.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump
Seven of every eight voters who identify the economy as their top issue back Trump.

President Donald Trump may not be a fan of The Washington Post, but odds are he will endorse its latest poll of the presidential race in Florida.

In a survey of 613 likely voters released Wednesday morning, the Post poll has Trump and Vice President Mike Pence leading Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, 51% to 47%.

This poll, a rare survey to show Trump ahead, is predicated on an unlikely R+5 turnout model. But the results will be hailed by Republicans nonetheless.

The spread is still within the 4.5% margin of error, but the President’s surge among likely voters as the election nears corresponds with the internal polling seen by many Republicans.

Economic issues are helping the President: Seven of every eight voters who identify the economy as their top issue back Trump.

The poll shows that voters of both parties are coming home to their candidates, with just 5% of Democrats polled supporting the President’s reelection, and the same percentage of Republicans willing to vote for Biden.

Trump is the choice of 92% of registered Republicans, and Biden the preference of 94% of Democrats.

The gender gap in support for the two candidates has been pronounced in virtually every poll of this race, but in The Washington Post poll, the numbers among men are dire for the Democrat.

Biden’s support from men cratered, down to 40% in the survey. The President is the choice of 59% of men polled, including 68% of white men.

The former Vice President, meanwhile, cannot close the gap with women. His lead over Trump stands at just eight points, 52% to 44%. And the President leads with white women, 54% to 43%.

Among levels of educational attainment, a familiar narrative predominates.

The President is dominating the Democrat among voters who have not completed their college educations, while those with four-year degrees or more advanced certifications back Biden.

While younger voters continue to back Biden, there are warning signs for the Democrat even among younger millennials.

Biden clings to a five-point lead (50% to 45%) among voters 18 to 39 years of age, but trails by 3% among voters aged 40 to 64.

Among voters 65 and older, the President leads by eight in this survey.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


8 comments

  • DisplacedCTYankee

    September 23, 2020 at 8:23 am

    A poll of 613 “voters” in a state of 21 million people — means nothing.

  • S.B. ANTHONY

    September 23, 2020 at 9:28 am

    There can be no economic recovery until America gets a handle on the coronavirus and that will not
    happen under a Trump administration. The “uneducated” supporters of trump, who apparently also are
    short on common sense or street smarts, will suffer the most dire consequences of a failed economy.

  • James Robert Miles

    September 23, 2020 at 10:32 am

    Imagine that. Your expecting the “man” who takes responsibility for NOTHING doing something about Covid when he has done NOTHING to stop it, calling it a “hoax.” His idiot supporters are his real suckers and losers, not the dead U.S. serviceman that he referred to as such. Trump is good at playing golf and tweeting and not much else! ANYBODY but TRUMP 2020! Save Social Security!

  • Clever Cleaver

    September 23, 2020 at 11:39 am

    Non-mask wearers, confederate flag lovers, Covid deniers, Q Anon subscribers, skinheads, White supremacists, extreme opponents of abortion, and people of ethnic descent such as African-Americans and Latinos who are so self loathing that they would rather support structural racism at the highest levels of elected government rather than repudiate its ugliness. This is what the Trump alliance looks like. Let’s be honest about that.

    And now this corrupt piece of shit wants to boost his campaign by using the Court as a political pawn–with the clear goal of rousing “Pro Life” Republicans and Democrats to vote for his dictatorship, relying on emotion over logic to vote for a man who is breathtakingly inept at his job.

    But here’s a question pro lifers: When are you gonna care about the lives that are already walking the Earth, such as Black lives, and the 200,000+ lives lost that your Fuhrer doesn’t even want to acknowledge? Is your minds, is criminalizing abortion a suitable trade off for voting for a man who is dismantling our democracy?

  • Kelly In Neptune

    September 23, 2020 at 11:44 am

    I’m still trying to figure out how Trump made America great again. He certainly didn’t do it by “downplaying” a virus that has already put 200,000 Americans into their graves. He hasn’t done it by allowing Russia to control our elections. Many farmers are bankrupt; millions are unemployed. Meanwhile, his stock market buddies are getting wealthier while Trump pushes to dismantle healthcare, leaving millions more uninsured during a pandemic.

    China is beating us. Russia has our number. I can’t recall a time when America’s president was so clearly outmatched by a Russian dictator, OR when an American president begged a Chinese despot to help him win reelection.

    I truly do not understand why anyone thinks this man has or is capable of making America great because he hasn’t thus far.

    What he has done is made America sicker, poorer, and weaker.

  • John

    September 23, 2020 at 11:59 am

    Only the gullible, corrupt or plain stupid would vote for a con-man bankruptcy expert like Trump. Abortion pro-lifers care nothing about starving children or prisoners on death row. Government is a service, not a business. If you are over sixty and vote for Trump you must not be one of the millions that depend on social security because he is out to defund it!

  • Ocean Joe

    September 23, 2020 at 1:16 pm

    The economy has hit many markers unmatched since the Great Depression. When people look at where we were when Trump took office and where we are now, it is laughable that he would get credit for the economy. The jobs he bragged about have vanished, traditional American companies have gone into bankruptcy, food lines everywhere, nothing has been done to unstack our financial house of cards, instead our debt has exploded and our balance of trade is at an all time high deficit. But the wealthy are in fact wealthier. Far wealthier. The population was sacrificed to protect the stock market. Whichever man is elected faces the prospect of a new depression. History tells us which party can handle it and which party delivers recessions. What good is your wealth when your neighbors are starving or losing their homes? Don’t they talk about that in church anymore?

  • Sonja Fitch

    September 23, 2020 at 4:01 pm

    Democrats have always had to be the “clean upers” of the Economic Disasters of the GOP ! But this presidential election has placed our democracy for the common good in a make or break election! The goptrump cult is sociopaths on the rage and rape of our democracy! Vote these sobs out! Vote Democrat up and down ballot!

Comments are closed.


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