A Florida Atlantic University Poll released Wednesday shows Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio leading former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the Sunshine State’s GOP presidential primary, The Sun Sentinel reports.
Rubio is in second place in the poll with 19.2 percent, while Bush is in third place with 11.3 percent. New York businessmen and Palm Beach resort owner Donald Trump is in first with 31.5 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 5.2 percentage points.
Tampa Bay Times Political editor Adam Smith points out that Florida’s winner-take-all primary — meaning that all 100 delegates will go to the winner, rather than being divided among the top finishers — could hurt Bush. Many GOP political consultants early on believed that Rubio would never run for the presidency if his mentor Bush did so the state primary became winner-take-all.
“After Bush signaled he was likely to run, Republican legislative leaders set the 2016 Florida primary for March 15 — and made the primary winner-take-all, rather than a primary in which several candidates could divide the state’s 100 or so delegates proportionally,” Smith wrote. “It was a gift to Bush, to ensure he could count on winning a big pile of delegates in case he did not dominate earlier contests.”
Additionally, the poll shows that Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton crushing her opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders and potential opponent Vice President Joe Biden in Florida.
However, the poll also shows she would lose to Rubio, Bush, or Ben Carson and tie with Trump in a hypothetical 2016 general election face-off.
