Florida Sen. Marco Rubio trails Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump by double digits in his home state of Florida, according to a new poll.
The new poll comes just a day after Rubio said he would win his state’s GOP primary despite trailing Trump.
According to the new Quinnipiac University poll of the Sunshine State, Trump leads the field with 44 percent support among likely Republican primary voters. Rubio has 28 percent, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 12 percent, Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 7 percent and Ben Carson at 4 percent.
“Florida is the single biggest prize of the primary season because it is the largest state to allocate its delegates on a winner-take-all basis. If Sen. Rubio can’t win in his own home state, it is difficult to see how he can win elsewhere,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement.
“Florida election law makes this contest more uncertain than earlier primaries. Only registered Republicans may vote here, which raises the question of whether the flood of new voters Donald Trump seemed to bring to earlier contests will be able to participate in Florida,” Brown added.
However, 5 percent of likely primary voters are undecided and 30 percent of those who named a candidate said they might change their mind before the state’s March 15 primary.
Trump’s sizable lead comes from all demographics. Men back Trump over Rubio, 49 percent to 25 percent, while women go for Trump 39 percent to 1 percent.
The telephone poll of 705 likely Republican primary voters was conducted Feb. 21-24 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
Soon after the poll came out, Todd Harris, a senior advisor to Rubio, pushed back against it.
“Media needs to chill. The FL Q poll #’s are way wrong. We are going to win Florida. Period. Take it to the bank,” he tweeted.
Wednesday on “CBS This Morning,” Rubio said he would win his home-state: “Now that Governor Bush is no longer in the race, him and I split up a lot of the support in Florida so that’ll help us.”
