Growing number of Southwest Florida Republicans believe Joe Biden’s victory fraudulent

More Republicans in Southwest Florida believe Joe Biden’s win for President was fraudulent now than did immediately after the election. And more than ever they want President Donald Trump to continue challenging the results.

That’s according to a poll by Victory Insights, a Republican polling firm with an office in Naples. Pollsters there surveyed voters in Florida’s 19^th Congressional District both on Nov. 7, the day most national media outlets called the election for Biden, and on Dec. 2, 30 days after the final votes for President were cast.

Between those dates, the percentage of registered Republicans who believe fraud played a role in Biden’s projected victory rose from 69% to 72%. Meanwhile, those who felt it did not dropped a percentage point, from 25% to 24%. Those undecided diminished from 6% to 4%.

That shows time has done little to calm the upset about the election results in the conservative-rich region. In the time between the polls, Trump and his legal team have made a number of assertions of fraud in several battleground states, most without any substantiation to the claims.

The slight increase in beliefs there was fraud corresponds with a similar drop in the number of Republicans who want a peaceful transition to a Biden administration. There are still 64% who favor such a course, but that’s a drop from 67% who desired that route in November, while the number who want Trump to “pursue all legal remedies” has jumped from 29% to 32%.

Pollsters also asked voters if Florida should secede from the United States should Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris take office. There are 31% of voters who support such a step, with 17% strongly backing such a move, and another 18% on the fence.

A total of 51% of Republicans oppose secession, the bulk of them strongly opposed. But that leaves Republicans in region almost evenly divided as far as being open to separating from the United States of America.

Since November, that marks an increase of 1 point in favor of such revolution, but a four point increase in those who say no to secession.

The same pollsters in November also surveyed voters in North Carolina and found 1 in 3 voters there favored breaking from the union. Updated results from the Tarheel State have been released.