Poll: Clinton dominates 2016 field in Florida

Hillary Clinton easily tops the 2016 presidential field in the battleground state of Florida in a new poll, while in-state Sen. Marco Rubio is narrowing the GOP gap, as support wanes for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Just over two-thirds of Democratic voters in Florida back Clinton, who also beats her possible GOP competitors by margins of 7-21 percentage points, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released Thursday.

None of the possible candidates have announced a decision to run. 

Florida voters back Clinton over Bush 49 percent to 42 percent, the poll found. They support Clinton over Rubio 53 percent to 39 percent, over Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) 51 percent to 38 percent, over Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) 53 percent to 37 percent and over Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) 54 percent to 33 percent.

{mosads}Support for Clinton in Florida has increased by 3 percentage points, since 64 percent said they back her in a May Quinnipiac poll. 

The new survey found Vice President Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) trail Clinton distantly in Florida with 8 percent support each.

Bush, meanwhile, tops the potential GOP field with 21 percent. Eighteen percent said they support Rubio; 10 percent back Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas); 8 percent support Paul; 7 percent support former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) and 6 percent back Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.). Thirteen percent of Republicans remain undecided. 

The survey from May also found Bush led the GOP pack with 27 percent support, but Paul came in second with 14 percent, and Rubio came in third with 11 percent.

Clinton received the highest favorability rating with 58 percent, compared with 48 percent who view Bush favorably, 43 percent who view Rubio favorably, 35 percent who view Christie favorably and 33 percent who view Rubio favorably.

The new poll surveyed 1,251 registered voters from July 17-21 with a 2.8 percentage point margin of error. The poll’s survey included 451 Republicans and 457 Democrats with 4.6-point margins of error each.