Mitch Perry
Marco Rubio may insist that Jeb Bush‘s entrance into the GOP presidential sweepstakes won’t affect his own chances of competing, but the early indications aren’t very encouraging for Florida’s junior Senator in his home state.
A St. Pete Polls survey of Florida Republicans released this morning shows Rubio getting just 15 percent support in the Sunshine State. Bush leads all candidates with 35 percent.
However, the man of the moment in GOP presidential politics, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, trails right behind Rubio in third place with 14 percent.
Then comes retired neurosurgeon and West Palm Beach resident Ben Carson in fourth place with 6 percent support. That’s ahead of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (5.5 percent), Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (5 percent), Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (4 percent) or former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who comes in at 3 percent. Twelve percent said they preferred someone else, with perhaps the biggest name missing among the many other potential GOP candidates in the field would be Mike Huckabee.
The poll was taken over the weekend, and shows that that there appears to be something about the hype about Walker, who has received acclaim in conservative circles for his performance while speaking in Iowa 10 days ago. That speech propelled him to the top of the polls amongst Iowa caucus voters, and gives him one of his highest poll ratings ever taken in Florida.
On Monday, a Mason-Dixon poll showed an overwhelming number of Floridians would prefer that Rubio concentrate on running for re-election to the U.S. Senate next year, and not run for president.
The poll of 1,676 registered Republican voters, conducted between Jan.30 and Feb.2, has a margin of error of 2.4 percent. The results can be found here.
