So, it’s not just us in Miami.
Apparently, the whole country is looking at this Republican presidential primary coming next year as a showdown between the two real Floridian candidates — Former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio.
Although there are 12 — maybe 14? Ladra’s losing count — candidates in this race to the White House, it’s really been a two-man contest in South Florida since Rubio officially announced in April (because everybody knew Bush was in). Now, according to polls, we learn the rest of the country feels that way, too.
Three out of every four Republican voters nationwide said they could see themselves voting for either Bush (75%) or Rubio (74%), according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released this week. That was the highest support that any candidate got. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who now also lives in Florida, was a distant third with 65% — making the Sunshine State the home of three top contenders — and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker , who many consider a threat also, came in at 57%.
The results of this June poll of 236 Republican primary voters saw an improvement for both our local heroes, but a larger one for Bush, who announced last week and maybe connected with some skeptics via his Slow Jam the News piece with Jimmy Falon, even though he seems waaaaaay uncomfortable.
Read related story: Marco Rubio shines bright at Jeb-less Lincoln Day dinner
Bush also led the field in another quesiton: When asked to choose one candidate they could vote for today, Bush led with 22 percent. Walker came in at 17 percent and Rubio was on his heels with 16%. Surgeon Ben Carson has 11% and Huckabee has 9%.
In the poll’s best news for everyone, billionaire clown Donald Trump — who offended all Hispanics everywhere (except the GOP Hispanics who have remained silent) when his announcement included remarks about Mexicans crossing the border to bring drugs and rape our women — is on the bottom of both scales. Just 32% of Americans can even envision themselves voting for him, which is still to many. But only 1% picked him as their candidate today.
One of the poll’s most interesting findings was that Americans are unconcerned with the dynasty argument. That is, the last name or the fact that a candidate is the son or brother of a former president does not seem to sway them much. Respondents were presented with six election issues that may be problematic to some. Only 4% marked “too many people from the same families are running as have run in the past” as a top concern.
By the way, Hillary Clinton might be letting go a little sigh of relief as well. The top concern for a whopping 33% was that “wealthy individuals and corporations will have too much influence over who wins.”