Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson are the favorites among GOP voters in the sunshine state, according to a Florida poll conducted by the University of North Florida (UNF), which found Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush not faring so well in their home state.
Trump came in with 21.7 percent support and Dr. Ben Carson came in second with 19.3 percent.
Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush didn’t do as well in their home state. Rubio came in third with 14.9 percent and Bush in fourth with 9 percent.
However, there is better news for Rubio when those surveyed were asked who their second choice would be, with 20.1 percent of voters picking Rubio. Carson had 14.9 percent, Carly Fiorina came in third under that question with 11.1 percent and Bush claimed fourth again with 10.2 percent. Trump had 6 percent of those polled say they would select him as their second choice.
Those polled gave Trump a favorability rating of 52.5 percent and an unfavorable rating of 39.9 percent.
“Regarding Bush, 64.9 percent have a favorable opinion and 28.8 percent have an unfavorable opinion,” noted the poll results. “Rubio is more popular as 81.1 percent of the respondents view him favorably, while only 13 percent have an unfavorable opinion of him.”
Some 35 percent of the likely GOP primary voters said the economy, jobs and unemployment are the most important issues facing the nation. Terrorism came in second with 18.1 percent and immigration came in third with 13.5 percent.
The participants were asked what they thought the government should do with illegal immigrants already in this country.
23.4 percent said they should stay in the U.S. as registered guest workers for a limited time, which is part of Carson’s plan to tackle the illegal immigration problem in America. However, 19 percent believe they should be labeled felons and sent back to their home countries. Only 8 percent believe the illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay as guest workers for an unlimited amount of time – but not receive citizenship.
38.5 percent of the voters said the illegal immigrants should be able to stay in the country and eventually qualify for citizenship after paying back taxes and fines. 7.1 percent support the government allowing the illegal immigrants to stay in the country and eventually qualify and earn citizenship without penalties.
The results were collected via phone calls and roughly 200 UNF students helped collect the survey results. The poll was conducted from October 8th to October 13th with 641 likely Republican primary voters in Florida with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.87 percent.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.