Poll: Dems have edge in Fla. Senate match-ups
The two Democratic candidates in Florida are leading the top three GOP hopefuls in most head-to-head general election match-ups for the open Senate seat, a poll released Tuesday finds.
A new survey from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling found that Democratic candidates Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) defeat most of the leading GOP candidates, but Murphy beats them by larger margins.
{mosads}Murphy leads Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.), 38 to 34 percent; leads Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), 41 to 33 percent; and leads Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, 40 to 31 percent.
Grayson leads Lopez-Cantera, 38 to 35 percent; and DeSantis, 40 to 34 percent. But he narrowly trails Jolly, 38 to 35 percent.
“Democrats appear to have a slight initial advantage in the Florida Senate race,” Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, said in a release. “But it’s hard to make too much of it at this point because the candidates are so little known.”
All of the Democratic and Republican candidates are below 50 percent name recognition.
Murphy and Grayson are in a heated primary battle for the Democratic nomination. The party’s establishment has rallied around Murphy, and Grayson is under fire for continuing to run a hedge fund while in Congress.
Jolly, Lopez-Cantera, and DeSantis are running in a crowded field for the GOP nomination that also includes businessman Todd Wilcox and homebuilder Carlos Beruff.
The poll was conducted Feb. 24-25 and surveyed 1,012 registered voters via phone and Internet. The margin of error was 3.1 percentage points.
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