Despite a slew of polls showing Donald Trump losing to Hillary Clinton in the critical swing state of Florida, there’s a glimmer of hope for the GOP presidential candidate as a new survey released Wednesday shows him in the lead.
Trump is beating Clinton 45 percent to 43 percent, the Bloomberg Politics Florida poll finds, when independent third party candidates are factored in.
In a head to head match up between just the Republican and Democrat, Trump’s lead over Clinton slips to one point, 46 percent to 45 percent.
The polls finds Trump is viewed more favorably (46 percent) in Florida than Clinton (44 percent) — and Trump — who last week refused to say whether he would accept the election results, and denied allegations of sexual misconduct from an 11th accuser — even has a slightly lower net unfavorable rating (51 percent) than his Democratic opponent (53 percent).
The Bloomberg Politics Florida Poll was taken between Oct. 21-24 and surveyed 953 Florida residents who have already voted or say they will certainly vote. It’s margin of error is 3 percentage points.
But Clinton maintains a lead in the RealClearPolitics average of Florida polls, receiving support from 46.4 percent of the vote to Trump’s 44.8 percent. The Bloomberg poll is the first reliable poll since Oct. 4 to show Trump with even a slight lead.
Likewise, she boasts a nearly five percentage point advantage in the national average of polls, 48.2 percent to 43.3 percent.
Meanwhile, in the Florida Senate race, the Bloomberg poll finds former GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio with a sizable lead over Democrat Patrick Murphy, 51 percent to 41 percent.
The poll also finds that 64 percent of Florida voters believes the nation is going on the “wrong track,” while only 29 percent believe the US is headed in the “right direction.”
Twenty-one percent of Florida believes the biggest issue facing the US is the “terrorist threat from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS,” while 17 percent believe it’s “unemployment and jobs,” 15 percent health care and 13 percent “A decline in real income for American workers.”