Friday marked filing deadlines to determine who'd be on the primary ballots and as a result, we now have a clearer picture. Looking first at Florida's Senate race, Bill Nelson won't face a primary challenge. The same isn't true on the Republican side of the race. However, rather than six qualified candidates as was possible a couple of weeks ago, there will only be two Republican candidates for Senate on the August primary ballot. Rocky De La Fuente and Gov. Rick Scott.
Of course, Governor Rick Scott is a favorite, but he does have an election to win before the general. That being said, let's dig into where we stand head to head with Nelson and Scott.
We've had four accredited polls released since Scott jumped into the race. Scott's led in three and Nelson in one. In an average of current accredited polling here's what we see: 44% for Nelson, 46% for Scott and 10% Undecided/third party.
This continues to be an strong start for Governor Scott. And in advance of the GOP's Gubernatorial debate here's a look at the candidates based on current accredited polling:
- Putnam: 23.5%
- DeSantis: 16.5%
- Devine: 3%
- White: 3%
- Nathan 2%
- Others/Undecided: 52%
We have several candidates and fewer than half of Florida's Republican primary voters that have made a decision on who to support. Just two months before the election. Thursday night's debate appears to be extremely important for these candidates. There's not a long runway for them to win over support and there's an enormous amount of support to be won over.