Donald Trump is leading Hillary Clinton by two points in Florida, a critical battleground state in the presidential election, according to a Bloomberg Politics poll published Wednesday.
The Republican nominee has 45 percent to Hillary Clinton’s 43 percent among likely voters in the battleground state and is narrowly leading among independents 44 to 37 when including third-party candidates, the poll showed. In a two-way match between Trump and Clinton, Trump still had a two-point advantage with independents, 43 to 41.
Independents were a critical bloc in the presidential election sixteen years ago — they leaned slightly for George W. Bush by a two-point margin nationally in 2000 and nearly half of those who voted for Nader said they would have instead cast a vote for Al Gore in a two-way race, according to one exit poll. Florida famously decided the outcome of that election, when the U.S. Supreme Court halted a recount and handed Bush the state — and the presidency — by a margin of 537 votes.
Winning Florida is particularly critical for Trump, whose path to victory winds through the Sunshine State. Though Trump is leading in 22 other states, Trump trails Clinton in national polling by a margin of several points. Major election forecasts give Clinton a significant chance of winning the presidency.
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