With just over two weeks to go before the November general election, a new poll shows Florida's Hispanic voters back incumbent Governor Ron DeSantis over Democratic challenger Charlie Crist by a 7-point lead.
The Telemundo/LX News poll shows DeSantis leading Crist by 51% to 44% statewide among Hispanic voters, with 56% approving of the job the governor is doing, compared to 41% who don’t approve.
The Telemundo/LX News poll shows 72% of Cuban-Americans favor DeSantis over Crist, who earns just 22% of their support in the poll.
Voters with Puerto Rican roots — who tend to live in Central Florida, vote more Democratic and also may account for about a third of the Latino voter rolls, according to experts — back Crist over DeSantis by 59% to 37%. And other Hispanic voters from throughout Latin America also side with Crist over DeSantis by a large margin of 53% to 43%.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
The 2022 poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy from Oct. 17 to Oct. 20. A total of 625 registered Hispanic voters statewide were interviewed were randomly selected from a phone-matched Florida voter registration list that included both landline and cell phone numbers. Quotas were assigned to reflect Hispanic voter registration by county. All indicated they were likely to vote in the general election. The margin for error, according to standards customarily used by statisticians, is no more than ± 4 percentage points.
When asked about DeSantis's recent relocation of migrants to Martha's Vineyard, 50% of respondents approved vs. 43% who disapproved; 7% were not sure. Last month, DeSantis sent two planes carrying 50 Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard to make a statement about President Joe Biden’s border policies.
DeSantis derived a potential benefit from Hurricane Ian, which devastated the coast of Southwest Florida in September but gave the governor weeks of unfettered media exposure, including a rare bipartisan appearance when President Biden visited the state. About 73% approve of DeSantis' handling of the state's recovery from the storm vs. 17% who disapprove; 10% were not sure.
Read more on the results and analysis of the Telemundo/LX News poll here.
The Telemundo Station Group is part of the NBCUniversal Local division and owned by Comcast, the same parent company as NBC 6.
LX News is NBCUniversal Local’s new TV and streaming network that serves younger audiences. LX News is owned by Comcast, the same parent company as NBC 6.
