Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson has taken the lead in the heated Florida U.S. Senate race against Republican challenger Gov. Rick Scott, a recent poll shows.
Nelson has emerged with a 53-46 percent lead in the highly visible race, a Quinnipiac University Poll shows, despite Scott spending millions of dollars in attack ads against the longtime senator.
The poll, which was released last week, is the first to show Nelson with a commanding lead. A similar poll conducted Sept. 5 showed the two politicians locked in a dead heat.
The latest poll also shows that women back Nelson 58-41 percent, while men are divided at 51 percent for Scott and 47 percent for the incumbent senator.
The poll shows that 26 percent of likely Florida voters say health care is the most important issue for them, while 19 percent cite the economy, 18 percent list immigration, 15 percent center on the Supreme Court and 12 percent are most concerned about gun policy.
Also, many Florida voters say those attack ads on television that are sure to increase as the Nov. 6 election nears aren’t likely to change their mind, with 94 percent saying they know exactly how they’re going to vote.
Both Nelson and Scott have paid recent visits to Florida’s Friendliest Hometown. In late July, Nelson was greeted by a rousing round of applause and a standing ovation during a campaign stop at the Wildwood Community Center when he announced to the crowd: “I knew The Villages would turn Democrat.”
During that two-hour gathering, Nelson challenged Scott over everything from a beach trespassing issue in the Panhandle area to his stance on Medicare and Social Security.
“He said, ‘I want everyone to have a 401k.’ That’s privatization,” Nelson said. “So why are so many our fellow senior citizens supporting the Republicans that are trying to do away with Social Security and Medicare?”
Nelson also was expected to attend The Villages Democratic Club’s September meeting, which drew an overflow crowd at the Colony Cottage Recreation Center. But he was a no-show and many in the audience were disappointed when it was announced that the senator’s plane was delayed and he would be unable to attend the meeting.
Scott made his own stop in The Villages last month when his campaign bus rolled into the Eisenhower Recreation Center as part of his 10-day “Make Washington Work Bus Tour.”
His visit to Florida’s Friendliest Hometown got off to a bit of a rocky start when he was more than hour late for his appearance and many in the crowd had gone home. But those who remained cheered for the outgoing governor as he said that Nelson played a role in cutting $716 billion out of Medicare and hasn’t done anything to secure the country’s borders or fix immigration issues. And he added that Nelson has introduced hundreds of bills with very few of them passing.
“I’m running against a guy who’s been there four decades,” he said of the longtime politician from Melbourne who was first elected to the Florida Legislature in 1972. “Four decades and what’s he done for us? He’s never done anything for us.”
Nelson and Scott will square off in a debate hosted by Telemundo in Miami on Tuesday, which will be broadcast at 7 p.m. that evening. And the two candidates will meet again in a nationally-televised debate Oct. 16 that will be moderated by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. That event is expected to be a key face-off between the two candidates.