With just five days to go before Election Day, the final polls for Florida are indicating that Donald Trump is likely to maintain his lead in the state. Despite facing backlash after a controversial comment made by a speaker at one of his rallies in New York, Trump continues to hold a marginal lead over Kamala Harris in Florida. A Cygnal poll conducted between October 26 and 28 showed Trump with a five-point advantage over Harris. The comment, which compared Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage,” could have had significant implications in Florida, which has a sizeable Puerto Rican voter population.
Even though there was widespread outrage over the comment, Trump appears to have remained relatively unaffected in terms of his support among Hispanic voters in Florida. According to the poll, Trump has the support of 50 percent of Hispanic voters in the state, an improvement from his 46 percent in 2020. While he leads by 10 points among Hispanics overall, his lead shrinks to just two points among Puerto Ricans. Despite this, Trump continues to lead Harris in the Cygnal poll, with support from 48 percent of voters compared to Harris’s 43 percent. There is still a significant portion of likely voters who remain undecided, making the outcome uncertain.
Although Trump’s lead in the Cygnal poll has shown some shrinkage compared to previous weeks and months, other recent polls have painted a more favorable picture for the former president. A national poll from the Florida Atlantic University Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab (PolCom Lab) and Mainstreet Research USA released on Tuesday showed Trump leading Harris in Florida by a margin of 53 percent to 44 percent among likely voters, a nine-point lead. Another poll conducted by ActiVote among 400 likely voters between October 11 and 27 also showed Trump leading Harris by 11.6 percent in the state.
In the aftermath of the controversial comment made at one of his rallies, Republican Senator Rick Scott and Representatives Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez swiftly condemned the speaker’s remarks. Trump’s campaign also distanced itself from the comment. Despite this, Trump has managed to maintain his lead over Harris in Florida and appears to have the support of a significant portion of Hispanic voters in the state. His advantage extends to swing voters as well, with 35 percent reportedly backing him compared to 32 percent supporting Harris. With just a few days remaining until the election, the outcome in Florida remains uncertain, but the polls suggest that Trump is in a favorable position to secure victory in the Sunshine State, which has not voted Democrat since 2012.
