The Democrat South Florida county of Miami-Dade gave Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) high favorability ratings on Monday, according to a Bendixen and Amandi poll.
The Miami-Dade electorate handed DeSantis a seven-point margin of favorability (48-41 percent) in a county where Democrats have about 163,000 more registered voters than Republicans.
The poll was conducted with 39 percent Democrat and 37 percent Republican respondents. The poll sampled 800 people from March 3-8 with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.4.
Miami-Dade has been a Democrat stronghold for years. For instance, DeSantis’ 2018 opponent Andrew Gillum won the state by 21 percentage points, representing a 28 point swing in four years.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the Miami-Dade with over 30 percentage points. In 2020, President Biden won the county with a margin of 7 percentage points.
Comparing Biden’s victory to Monday’s polling, DeSantis has earned a 14 point swing in two years.
The terrible polling for Democrats seems to hinge on Hispanic voters. Fifty-one percent view Biden negatively. Among Cuban Hispanics, Biden’s disapproval climbs to 59 percent. Just 37 percent of Cubans said they have a favorable view of the President.
In contrast, both DeSantis and former President Donald Trump hold a 55 percent or above approval rating among Cubans.
“I think the poll confirms what we’ve seen,” pollster Fernand Amandi told the Miami Herald. “There’s a cleavage in the Hispanic vote between Cuban and non-Cuban Hispanics … For Democrats to enjoy the type of margins that they’ve historically been accustomed to in Miami-Dade, they need to go back to basics.”
The poll also revealed that Trump trounces DeSantis in a potential GOP 2024 primary by 22 points (55-32 percent). In a potential 2024 general election, DeSantis is the stronger candidate than Trump against Biden by one percentage point or within the margin of error.
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