Any list of possible Republican vice presidential candidates features Florida Republican and tea party favorite Marco Rubio, but a poll released Wednesday by Public Policy Polling found that the senator would not be particularly helpful to a presidential candidate looking to win in his home state of Florida.
According to the Public Policy Polling poll, just 30 percent of Florida voters say they would be more likely to vote for a Republican for president with Rubio on the ticket as the vice president. A larger number say that it would, in fact, make them less likely to vote for that candidate. Thirty-four percent say it would make no difference. (RELATED: Rubio: I’m not going to be the vice presidential nominee)
In part, these numbers likely reflect the portion of Democrat and Republican voters who are already set on voting for their party’s nominee, regardless of who the vice president is.
Nonetheless, the freshman senator maintains a positive approval rating, with 44 percent saying they approve of his job performance and just 39 percent saying they disapprove.
Rubio said Wednesday he would say no if offered the job. “I’m not going to be the vice presidential nominee,” Rubio told The Atlantic’s Washington Ideas Forum, according to the magazine’s Mark Ambinder. “The answer is going to be no.”
Even if he is not instrumental to winning Florida, Rubio could also help a Republican nominee win among Hispanics, Reuters points out.
The results are based on responses to robo-call surveys by 476 Florida voters from September 22 to September 25. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.