Trump, DeSantis Each Defeat Biden in Florida Poll

Florida voters prefer former President Donald Trump or Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., over President Joe Biden, according to a Suffolk University/USA Today Network poll released Tuesday.

The poll has DeSantis defeating Biden 52% to 44% in a general election contest in Florida, while Trump's margin over Biden is closer at 47% to 44%.

The survey is particularly significant, because Democrats hope to make a play for Florida, which they lost in the 2020 presidential election. Florida is the nation’s third most populous state and will have 30 electoral votes in the 2024 election.

Other results from the poll:

• Only 39% of those polled approved of Biden's handling of the presidency, while 53% disapprove. Among those polled, 57% said they disapproved of Biden’s handling of the economy and 58% said the country is headed down the wrong path, with only 28% saying the opposite.
• Biden is even trailing in a hypothetical Democrat primary against former presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by a within-the-margin-of-error tally of 46% to 43%, even though there is no indication Clinton plans to seek the presidency again.
• When stacked up against each other, Trump beat DeSantis 47% to 40%.
• 59% of voters support the state's ban on vaccine requirements. By a margin of 49% to 38%, those surveyed said Florida's more open pandemic policies have helped the state's economy rather than hurt it.
• 46% rated DeSantis' handling of the pandemic as excellent or good and 53% called it fair or poor.
• Voters also offered a mixed assessment of Biden's handling of the pandemic, with 45% approving of his dealing with it and 48% disapproving.

The poll was conducted between Jan. 26-29 and involved likely voters in the 2022 midterm elections. The margin of error in the survey overall is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. 

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