There’s some good news and some bad news for Jeb Bush and his supporters in a new Quinnipiac survey of Republican primary voters in Florida.
The former governor continues to lead the field of potential 2016 candidates with 24 percent. That’s 9 percentage points more than the next candidate in Florida, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who comes in at 15 percent. Marco Rubio is a close third with 12 percent.
However, that’s an 8-point drop for Bush since the last time Quinnipiac polled Florida voters two months ago, when he topped the field with 32 percent of the vote.
“Bush has a lead over the field in his home state of Florida, but it’s not anywhere near insurmountable,” says Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll.
Ben Carson is fourth in the poll in Florida with 8 percent; Ted Cruz is at 7 percent; Mike Huckabee is at 6 percent; Rand Paul at 4 percent; Rick Perry at 2 percent; and Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are are 1 percent.
U.S. Sen. Rubio is the top second choice for Florida Republicans after Bush, getting 21 percent support.
On the Democratic side, no surprise: Hillary Clinton continues to dominate the field with 65 percent. Joe Biden is next at 11 percent. Elizabeth Warren is at 7 percent. Vermont Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders is at 3 percent. Former Virginia U.S. Sen. Jim Webb comes in at 2 percent.
Quinnipiac also did surveys in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In the Buckeye state, Kasich gets the native son vote with 20 percent, with Walker, Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 9 percent each, Bush is at 8 percent, compared to 10 percent February 4, and Ben Carson at 8 percent.
In Pennsylvania: Scott Walker is at 14 percent with 9 percent each for Carson, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and Bush, who was at 12 percent last month..
The Florida Quinnipiac survey included 428 registered Republicans with a margin of sampling error of +/- 4.7 percentage points and 344 Registered Democrats with a margin of sampling error of +/- 5.3 percentage points. It took place from March 17-28 in Florida.