In a major shift from last month, a poll released Wednesday shows Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump overtaking Democrat Hillary Clinton in the key swing state of Florida.
In a head-to-head matchup, Trump leads Clinton by a margin of 42 percent to 39 percent in Florida, erasing the Democrat’s eight-point lead in June, according to the poll conducted by Quinnipiac University.
Trump also leads by a margin of 41 percent to 36 percent when Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are added to the mix.
Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said one factor could be the recent controversy surrounding Clinton’s use of a private email server and handling of classified information while she served as secretary of state.
The Department of Justice decided against prosecuting Clinton, but FBI Director James Comey publicly criticized her for being “extremely careless.”
“While there is no definite link between Clinton’s drop in Florida and the U.S. Justice Department decision not to prosecute her for her handling of emails, she has lost ground to Trump on questions which measure moral standards and honesty,” Brown said.
Trump’s lead in the head-to-head matchup is within the poll’s 3.1 percentage-point margin of error.
Clinton led in Florida by a margin of 47 percent to 39 percent in a Quinnipiac poll released June 21.
One of the biggest shifts in the new survey involves independent voters, who favored Clinton by nine percentage points in the June poll.
The poll released Wednesday indicated Trump leads among independents by a margin of 43 percent to 30 percent.
Overall, however, the new poll again reflected deep divisions among voters based on race, gender and age. Trump dominates among white voters, men and older Floridians. Clinton holds big leads among non-white voters, women and younger people.
The Connecticut-based Quinnipiac frequently conducts polls in Florida and other states.
In the latest poll, it surveyed 1,015 registered Florida voters from June 30 to Monday.