Since announcing his candidacy, Jeb Bush has touted his two terms as Florida’s governor on the campaign trail.
But likely voters in the state’s GOP primary put their former governor in fourth place with support in single digits, according to a poll from the University of North Florida released Tuesday.
If the primary was today, celebrity tycoon Donald Trump would earn 21.7 percent of votes, followed by retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson with 19.3 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio (FL) with 14.9 percent.
Bush, at fourth place, would earn 9 percent.
Despite his low ranking among GOP presidential contenders, 64.9 percent of those surveyed have a favorable view of him.
When asked who their second choice would be, Bush remained in fourth place (14.9 percent) behind Rubio, Carson and former technology executive Carly Fiorina.
The poll was conducted among 641 registered Republican likely voters in Florida from Oct. 8 to 13 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.87 percent.
Ouch.
We’ve seen the Bush Act before and Brother of W Bush, Jeb Bush, has the same advisors and the same policies as W Bush:
Continuous War
Concentration of Wealth
Declining Wages and Salaries
Loss of Economic Mobility for Middle Class Families
Health Care in which Families Pay More and Corporations Provide Less
Environmental Regulations that Work to Destroy the Planet
“Free Trade”, Like Obama’s, that Costs Jobs and Raises Prices
No Thank You.
This is the worse news for the flailing Bush campaign. If he can’t win Florida, hell, if he can’t even be the Establishment candidate for Florida, his donors start jumping ship.
Whatever strategy the GOP goes with for 2016, it absolutely starts with winning Florida. They have no realistic path to the White House without it…none. Florida is the “firewall” for the Bush campaign, they were always going to point this fact out to people on the fence; now the firewall is coming down.
Bush has the money (we think; his super PAC certainly does) to weather mediocre showings in IA, NH, SC and even NV. But only if he is the clear winner in Florida, at least for the Establishment wing.
And so we setup the nightmare scenario for the GOP. Bush stays in the race through Florida, splitting the votes with Rubio, and giving Trump a clear lead in delegates, and then realizing, too late, that its all for naught. Trump wins the nomination and the vaunted Bush machine is retired in shame.
Fool me once…
Bush will be out in the next couple of months. Once the money dries up, there is no reason to continue to support him. Trump will not be the GOP nominee. He can’t beat Carson or Rubio once the candidates start to fall away. I would like to see Bush, Huckabee, Jindal, Paul, Kasich, get out now. That would leave Trump, Carson, Fiorina, Cruz and Rubio to duke it out.
I thought Kasich would be a little stronger but he has run a terrible campaign. I had hoped for a Kasich/Rubio ticket.