Demings up by 4 points in challenge to Rubio, poll says

By Caroline Vakil /The Hill

Rep. Val Demings (D) leads Sen. Marco Rubio (R) by 4 percentage points in Florida’s Senate race, according to a poll released Tuesday.

The poll, released by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab, shows Demings with the support of 48 percent of surveyed registered voters who said they would vote in the midterms.

Rubio, in comparison, received 44 percent support, while 7 percent said they would choose someone else.

Broken down by party, 89 percent of Republican voters supported Rubio, in addition to 36 percent of voters who either had no party affiliation or whose political affiliation was termed “other.” The poll found that Demings was supported by 94 percent of Democratic voters and 46 percent of voters with no party affiliation.

Florida’s Senate race is considered one of the most competitive this November and has been rated as “lean Republican” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Demings was among a slew of Senate Democratic challengers who posted impressive fundraising numbers in the past quarter. Demings’s campaign posted more than $12 million for the second quarter while the Florida Republican’s campaign raised more than $4 million, according to Florida Politics.

The poll was conducted Aug. 8-12 with a total sample of 1,624 registered voters, with an overall margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. The number of voters polled on the Florida Senate race was 1,534.