Harris closes in on Trump in his home state of Florida, new poll reveals

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Kamala Harris may be improving her odds in the coveted state of Florida, which has been a key bastion of Republican support in recent years.

A new poll of 500 likely voters in Florida was carried out up to August 11 by USA Today/Suffolk University/WSVN-TV.

Trump has a 5-point lead over Harris in the poll, with 47 percent supporting the Republican candidate and 42 percent in favor of the Democrat.

Though Trump is still firmly in the lead, this is an improvement on all other major polls in Florida since President Joe Biden stepped down from the Democratic ticket.

Previous polls since July 21 have showed a 6-8 point lead for Trump over Harris in the state.

Interestingly, the poll shows that Florida’s Independent voters are leaning towards Harris, with a 7-point lead over Trump; better than the nationwide picture.

However, the Independents won’t be all it takes to win in Florida, as demonstrated by the 2020 election.

In the last presidential election, Trump won Florida by 3.3 percent despite the fact that Biden had an 11-point lead with Independent voters.

Though Florida was previously regarded as a swing state, that is no longer the case, and there are now 1 million more registered Republicans in the state than Democrats. Floridians have voted mostly Republican in the decades since 1980, with the exception of Bill Clinton (1996) and Barack Obama (2008 and 2012).

Outspoken Republican Ron DeSantis won the Florida governor election by a landslide in 2022, with 59.4 percent of the vote, compared to 40 percent for Democrat Charlie Christ.

Florida is also a personal favorite of Trump, who lives at his notorious Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach and hosts frequent rallies in the Sunshine State.

While Harris might be on track to diminish Trump’s lead, the largely Red state hasn’t turned Blue just yet.