A new NBC/Marist poll released Tuesday shows Democrats have a problem in Florida, where a tied race in the must-win state features former Vice President Joe Biden dramatically underperforming among Latinos, a demographic the campaign struggled to court during the primaries.
According to the poll, President Donald Trump narrowly leads Biden with 48 to 47 percent of registered voters, well within the survey’s +/- 3.9 percent margin of error. Each candidate remains tied among likely voters with 48 percent.
Among Latino voters however, who Clinton decisively won by 27 points in 2016 and still lost the state, Trump leads with 50 percent compared to Biden’s 46.
The NBC/Marist poll surveyed 1,047 registered voters and 766 likely voters between Aug. 31 to Sept. 6 using a combination of cell phone and landline interviews.
Another poll out Tuesday by Bendixen & Amandi offers a closer look at Biden’s standing in the Sunshine state, centering in on Miami-Dade County where Biden leads Trump among the county’s likely voters by 17 percent, with 38 percent for Trump compared to Biden’s 55. Trump however, doesn’t need to win the South Florida county. Four years earlier, Clinton carried the area by 30 points and still lost the entire state by more than 1 percent. One out of every seven voters in Florida for Clinton was located in Miami-Dade, making the county a key bloc of voters where Democrats need to win big to offset losses elsewhere in the state.
The Bendixen & Amandi poll, which surveyed 500 likely Miami-Dade voters between Sept. 1-4 with a +/- 4.4 percent margin of error, raises the alarm for the Biden campaign coming in the wake of a tightening race less than 60 days from Nov. 3 where Florida is a must-win state in either party’s column to reach the necessary 270 electoral votes on election day.
