Senator Marco Rubio is the most popular politician in Florida, according to a new poll that also puts him atop the field of likely GOP contenders for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Public Policy Polling surveyed 501 Florida voters Jan. 11-13 without asking their party affiliation. It also spoke with 401 Democratic and 436 Republican primary voters to gauge their thoughts. In a potential GOP contest, Rubio leads with 31 percent compared to 26 percent for former Gov. Jeb Bush and 11 percent for Mike Huckabee.
While Hillary Clinton leads a nine-way contest among likely Democratic candidates, garnering 52 percent of respondents, her overall favorability rating trails Rubio by about 11 points. Rubio is also favored over Jeb Bush, with only 53 percent of respondents saying the former Florida governor should run for the White House.
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Clinton leads the Democratic field with 65 percent saying they would vote for her, followed a distant second by Joe Biden at 15 percent. No other Democratic candidate garnered double digits.
The margin of error in the poll was 4.4 percent overall. In the party-specific polls, the margin was 4.9 percent for Democrats and 4.7 percent for Republicans.
Rubio is also polling strongly against Clinton, as the outgoing Secretary of State leads by a showing of only 50 to 46 percent, which is within the poll’s margin of error. Despite gaining a higher profile during Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is only favored by 7 percent of respondents.
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