A new University of North Florida poll on the coronavirus pandemic shows that if November’s presidential election were held today, Democrat Joe Biden would defeat President Donald Trump in the critical Sunshine State.
While 40% of voters said they would back Trump, 46% said they would cast ballots for Biden if he were the Democratic challenger. An additional 6% said they would not vote, while 8% remained undecided.
The university’s Public Opinion Research Lab revealed mixed levels of job approval for the president and Gov. Ron DeSantis in their handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The poll showed 45% strongly or somewhat approve of the job Trump is doing to address the pandemic, with 53% disapproving. DeSantis clocked in at 51% approval, with 46% disapproving.
A majority of respondents, 79%, are very or somewhat concerned about personally contracting the virus.
Of all the figures and organizations listed in the survey, Dr. Anthony Fauci received the highest approval ratings at 85% approval and 6% disapproval among registered voters in Florida. Vice President Mike Pence garnered 48% approval, with 44% disapproving.
“Among Republicans’ approval numbers, DeSantis and Trump are doing very well despite the national criticism about their response,” said Dr. Michael Binder, director of the lab. “However, no elected officials are receiving the levels of approval that Dr. Fauci has garnered.”
Trump narrowly won Florida in 2016, but neither he nor Democrat Hillary Clinton won a majority of the state’s votes. Trump won 49%, while Clinton won 47.8%.
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Biden, who served as President Barack Obama’s vice president, has not yet secured the Democratic nomination but is viewed by most analysts as the presumptive nominee. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is still seeking the party’s nomination, but he trails the former vice president in the race for pledged delegates, as well as in national polls.
The poll was conducted from Tuesday, March 31 through Saturday, April 4, 2020, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.7 percentage points.
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