President Trump’s polling took a nosedive in Florida as the vast majority of the key swing state’s residents say they are concerned about contracting the coronavirus. A poll released by the University of North Florida on Monday showed Trump’s approval rating in handling the coronavirus pandemic among the 3,244 Florida voters polled was 45% while 53% disapproved of his handling of the outbreak. Of the voters polled by UNF, 93% said they are concerned about the coronavirus, while 67% said they were in a high-risk group or lived with someone who was in a high-risk group. In a hypothetical head-to-head matchup with Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential front-runner, the poll found Trump trailing 40% to 46%. The poll is a steep decline from two polls from Univision and Florida Atlantic University, taken before and at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, that showed the president leading Biden by 3% and 2% in the state. When it came to the potential for the virus to influence the 2020 election, Michael Binder, director of UNF’s Public Opinion Research Lab, cautioned against reading to much into the poll numbers, but also said they could be the start of a trend. “I would exercise caution when looking at these numbers, first, these are registered voters — not likely voters; second, the campaign season has screeched to a grinding halt and people are rightly less focused on politics,” Binder said. “Although, this same sample of voters, when asked who they voted for in 2016, indicated a very slight advantage for Trump, suggesting that something may be changing in Florida ahead of the election.” Trump won Florida by 1.2 percentage points in the 2016 general election. A poll by the Morning Consult before the coronavirus was widespread in the United States found the president had […]
