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Joe Biden is beating President Trump by 13 points in Florida — 51% to 38% — per a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.
Why it matters: With its 29 electoral votes, Florida is a key state for the president to hang onto in order to win re-election.
- Respondents favored Trump on handling the economy (50% to 47%) but thought Biden would be better at handling issues like health care, the coronavirus response, a crisis and racial inequality.
Flashback: In late April, respondents put Biden ahead of Trump in the same poll by just four points (46% to 42%).
- And in mid-July 2016, Trump was ahead of Hillary Clinton by three points (42% to 39%).
The big picture: 70% think that the spread of coronavirus is out of control in the state, and A majority of Floridians (61%) believe Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) reopened the economy "too quickly."
- 79% say that people in the state should be required to wear face masks in public. Florida currently has no mask mandate.
- 62% also believe that it will be unsafe to send kids to K-12 schools in the fall.
Methodology: The RDD telephone survey was conducted from July 16 – 20 to 924 Floridians who self-identified as registered voters with a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.2 percentage points.