Republican Marco Rubio leads independent Gov. Charlie Crist by 10 points, 40 to 30 percent, in the race to become Florida’s next U.S. senator, according to Rasmussen Reports. The new Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek earns 21 percent support.
The Aug. 25 poll of 750 voters, which is the first tally in the race since the primary election the previous day, finds that 4 percent prefer some other candidate, and 5 percent are undecided.
In the last survey before the primary, respondents put Rubio at 38 percent, Crist at 33 percent and Meek 21 percent.
The new results move the state from tossup to leans Republican in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Balance of Power summary.
Three-fourths of Rubio supporters say they are certain of how they will vote and that they won’t change their mind before Election Day. Just 48 percent of Meek’s voters say the same, while 45 percent of Crist supporters are that certain. This suggests that the race could follow the typical pattern of three-way races, with either Meek or Crist slipping out of contention and watching their support drift to the other.
Meek supporters who might switch their vote are overwhelmingly considering Crist as their option. Among Crist supporters, most would consider changing to Meek. However, more than a third say they might switch to Rubio. This is not surprising, given that 37 percent of current Crist supporters disapprove of the way President Obama is doing his job.
Overall, former Florida House Speaker Rubio gets 73 percent of the Republican vote, and Crist draws 19 percent support from his old party. Meek earns 41 percent support in his own party, while Crist picks up 36 percent of the Democratic vote. Among voters not affiliated with either party, Crist has a 9-point edge over Rubio.
Just over half of the state’s voters approve of the job Crist is doing as governor, continuing a noticeable downward trend over the past two months. And 46 percent disapprove.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.