Former Vice President Joe Biden is headed for a big win over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hi., in next week’s Florida primary, a new poll shows.
The University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) released a poll of likely Florida Democratic primary voters which showed 66 percent of them back Biden while 22 percent support Sanders and 1 percent are for Gabbard.
“This is down to a two-man race and Biden is looking toward a blowout in Florida,” said Michael Binder, the director of the PORL. “Florida’s polling numbers combined with Biden’s strong showing this past week in the primaries, paints a bleak picture for the Sanders campaign. He is facing a do or die debate on Sunday if he hopes to swing the momentum.”
There is a major age gap with Sanders taking 77 percent of voters younger than 25 while Biden pills 78 percent of seniors. Most Florida Democrats–54 percent–have definitely made up their minds on who to vote for. Binder said the age discrepancy won’t hurt Biden too much in Florida.
“Sanders does have a lot of support among young people; however, there are just not enough voters in that demographic to propel him to a victory in Florida,” Binder said.
>While there might be an age gap, there is no division on race as 68 percent of black Democrats, 67 percent of white Democrats and 65 percent of Hispanic Democrats are backing Biden.
“Despite Sanders’ support among Hispanics in other parts of the country, Hispanics in Florida are firmly supportive of Biden,” Binder said.
Asked what the most important problem in the country is, almost a third–31 percent–of Florida Democrats say healthcare while 14 percent think it’s President Donald Trump and 12 percent say it’s the environment.
“For the most important problem question, we read aloud 8 potential answer choices for the respondents and healthcare dominated the concerns of Democratic voters,” Binder said. “We did not list Donald Trump as an option, and yet a whopping 14 percent of likely Democratic voters volunteered him as their answer,” Binder said.
Still, two-thirds of Florida Democrats–68 percent–think beating Trump in November is more important while 29 percent think it’s more important to nominate a candidate who shares their views.
The poll of 1,502 likely Florida Democratic primary voters was taken from March 5 through March 10 and had a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percent.
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