Billionaire Donald Trump has slightly increased his overwhelming lead in Florida to 24 percentage points, while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) looks set for a crushing defeat in his home state, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Monday.
The poll showed support for Trump at 46 percent in the Sunshine State, followed by Rubio at 22 percent, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) at 14 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) at 10 percent. This indicates no change for Rubio but a slight gain for Trump since last week’s Quinnipiac poll, when he stood at 45 percent. Cruz, by contrast, slid four percentage points from 18 percent.
These results come as Rubio’s embattled campaign has staked its future, in both rhetoric and deployment of resources, on a victory in the senator’s home state. But this strategy seems barely to have dented Trump’s momentum there.
TPM’s PollTracker Average shows Trump at 44 percent in Florida, followed by Rubio at 21 percent, Cruz at 20.2 percent and Kasich at 9.9 percent.
The Quinnipiac poll was carried out from March 8-13, using live telephone interviews. Pollsters surveyed 615 people likely to vote in the Republican primary, with a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
