Donald Trump has significantly narrowed the gender gap in Florida, with both men and women supporting him over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 45-44 percent, according to a new survey released yesterday by Public Policy Polling. Overall, Trump holds a narrow one-point lead among the 737 likely voters surveyed, though this puts Clinton well within the margin of error of 3.6 points.
Still, this represents positive news for Trump, who, in previous polling, has trailed Clinton by as many as 13 points and has not led her in a poll since early March. The survey also reveals continued weaknesses in the Democratic Party, split by the scorched-earth-style campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, who, after losing California, was denied the Democratic nomination last night. Only 77 percent of Democrats surveyed said that they would back Clinton, while 14 percent said that they would back Trump. Meanwhile, 83 percent of Republicans said that they would back Trump, while just 9 percent said that they would back Clinton.
Despite Sanders losing the nomination, polls have suggested that he would do better in key swing states against Trump than Clinton. However, this poll shows Sanders would only be tied with Trump when including Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson in the survey, suggesting that third party candidates may be hurting Democrats more than Republicans, especially with a weak nominee in Hillary Clinton. Only time will tell, however, whether Republicans and Democrats can unify around their presumptive nominees.
Elliot Hazzard works for the American Principles Project.
