A new poll shows Floridians are divided on whether President Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from office.
The University of North Florida (UNF) released a poll on Tuesday showing 48 percent of Florida voters want the U.S. House to launch an impeachment inquiry of Trump while 47 percent oppose the idea with voters largely divided on party lines. Asked if Trump should be impeached and removed from office, 48 percent say no while 46 percent favor it.
While Trump carried Florida in 2016, the poll shows he is upside down in Florida with 53 percent disapproving of him and 45 percent approving of him.
“Floridians are evenly split on impeachment, both on beginning the inquiry and removing Trump from office,” said Michael Binder, the faculty director of the Public Opinion Research Lab at UNF. “This similarity speaks to the division within the electorate regarding Trump: either they support removing him from office, or they are opposed to the impeachment inquiry entirely. It’s possible that both Republican senators will end up sitting in judgment during an impeachment trial. An even split among the public likely would not convince co-partisan senators to break with the president.”
UNF looked at how Trump did against some of the leading Democratic presidential candidates and found–not surprisingly–that Florida looks close. Former Vice President Joe Biden took 48 percent while Trump pulled 43 percent. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., received 46 percent while Trump remained at 43 percent. Against U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Mass., Trump took 44 percent while the Democrat pulled 41 percent. Trump garnered 43 percent while South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg took 42 percent. UNF did not match Trump up against U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
“The head to head horserace questions for the 2020 election appear to reinforce two popular narratives,” Binder said. “First, this is going to be an extremely close race, as each potential matchup is within the margin of error. Second, Biden appears to have the best chance of beating Trump in Florida with a five-point lead. However, one of the contributors to the difference between the other candidates and Trump is the increased level of “don’t know” responses among Democrats when Warren, Harris and Buttigieg are on the ballot. I would expect those Democrats to come home come November, much like Republicans did in 2016 with Trump.”
Trump does far better against the top Democrats than Vice President Mike Pence, according to the poll. Biden pulled 49 percent while Pence took 38 percent. Pence did better against Warren but was still down 46 percent to 40 percent.
“If the impeachment process somehow gets to the point where Trump is removed from office, Biden and Warren fare much better against Pence in the hypothetical matchups,” Binder said.
Asked what the most important problem in the U.S. is, 18 percent said healthcare and 18 percent said immigration followed by the economy at 12 percent and education with 11 percent. There is a partisan divide on the issue as 29 percent of Florida Republicans said immigration is the most important problem while 22 percent of Florida Democrats said it was healthcare.
“Healthcare and immigration are the two biggest issues among Floridians heading into 2020,” Binder said. “Even though Democrats and Republicans differ on which is more important, expect these two issues to dominate the campaign.”
The poll of 669 registered Florida voters was taken from Oct. 14 through Oct. 20 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percent.
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