New FOX 5 Poll: Clinton leads Trump in Florida
ATLANTA - A new poll conducted for FOX 5 Atlanta and sister FOX stations in Tampa and Orlando shows Democrat Hillary Clinton with a 4 point lead over Republican Donald Trump in the key southern state of Florida, only days before next Tuesday’s presidential election.
The Opinion Savvy survey conducted for FOX 5 Atlanta, FOX 13 Tampa and FOX 35 Orlando puts Clinton at 49 percent, Trump at 45 percent, Libertarian Gary Johnson at 2 percent, Green Party nominee Jill Stein at 1 percent, and 3 percent of the surveyed voters undecided.
Opinion Savvy conducted the survey of 603 likely and early voters in Florida on November 1 and 2. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.
FOX 5 political analyst Matt Towery, Sr. sees a reason for Clinton holding a lead.
Towery said, “The survey shows the candidates for president carrying the various demographic groups one would expect to see at this point in the race. The pounding Trump is receiving in negative television ads and the power of the surrogates she has in the state, such as President Obama, seems to be mitigating the impact of both the FBI investigation of Clinton’s email server and reported investigation of the Clinton Foundation.”
“Many voters are unaware of details regarding the investigations due to a combination of diminished exposure by mainstream media sources or general inattentiveness by the voters. Hence, Clinton has now taken a slight lead among independent voters”, said Towery.
The results surprised Towery in at least one section of Florida.
Towery said, “The great mystery presented by the poll was the fact that Clinton held a lead in Southwest Florida-- traditionally a strong source of Republican support in past statewide contests. There could be several reasons for this seemingly inexplicable result. First, that area of the state is also home to a large number of Mitt Romney/Jeb Bush devotees. The ‘Never Trump’ movement may be thwarting a potential Trump presidency in this one region of one state. Another potential reason for this odd result may be the rather strong “libertarian” philosophy often prevalent in this area.”
With only days before the election, Towery has an opinion on what Trump must do to overtake Clinton in the Sunshine State.
Towery said, “Regardless, for Trump to win in Florida he must move more independent voters over to his side and bolster his numbers in the usually GOP-reliable Southwestern section of the state. Ironically, Trump is winning the state’s legendary I-4 Corridor including Tampa Bay and Orlando. Voter turnout will be a key, and what appears to be a potentially record voter turnout will likely mean a very close race once the ballots are counted.”
Opinion Savvy, headed by Towery’s son Matt Towery Jr., conducted the poll for the three FOX affiliates.