CENTRAL FLORIDA — A new poll in Florida's race for governor gives Democrat Andrew Gillum a 9-point lead over Republican Ron DeSantis.
The poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University, gives the Tallahassee mayor a 54-45 edge over the former U.S. congressman, well outside the poll's margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.
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The new poll shows momentum for Gillum in recent weeks. Quinnipiac's previous poll, released on Sept. 4 (one week after the Florida primary), gave Gillum a 3-point lead, well within the margin of error.
Here are some of the factors the poll contributes to Gillum’s lead:
- Women back Gillum 59-39 percent (meanwhile, men favor DeSantis 51-48)
- Independent voters support Gillum 56-40
- Black voters backed Gillum 98-2 and Hispanic voters 59-41. White voters back DeSantis by a much slimmer margin, 53-45.
The poll also acknowledges that DeSantis, who was heavily backed by President Donald Trump in the primary, is heavily outspending Gillum on television advertising.
"All these TV ads don't seem to be helping DeSantis' campaign," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. "Those TV ads, run in an effort to introduce DeSantis to Florida voters, are airing at the same time his favorability numbers are sinking and Mayor Gillum's are rising."
The poll also found 20 percent of respondents believe the economy is the most important issue in their vote for governor, followed by immigration, education, health care, the environment and guns.
The survey was conducted from Sept. 20-24 using 888 likely voters in Florida, Quinnipiac said.
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