Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) trails Manhattan-based celebrity billionaire Donald Trump by 23 percentage points in his native Florida, according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday.
The poll showed support for Trump at 43 percent, distantly followed by Rubio at 20 percent. Coming comparatively close on Rubio’s heels were Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) at 16 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) at 10 percent.
This is the first Fox News poll of Florida released this cycle, but the results are consistent with trends in recent polling in the state. Trump appears poised to crush Rubio even as the latter has dug in and essentially staked his candidacy on a win there. A Quinnipiac poll released earlier today showed Trump winning the Sunshine State by an identical margin, with Trump at 45 percent and Rubio at 22 percent.
TPM’s PollTracker Average shows Trump at 40.5 percent, Rubio at 25.5 percent, Cruz at 16.4 percent and Kasich at 9.3 percent.
The Fox News poll was carried out from March 5-8 by live phone interviews. Pollsters surveyed 813 people in Florida likely to vote in the Republican primary, with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
