Donald Trump holds a double-digit lead over Marco Rubio in the senator’s home state of Florida, in what could be a death knell to GOP establishment hopes of derailing the populist real-estate mogul, according to a poll released Thursday.
Among likely Republican primary voters in winner-take-all Florida, Trump has 44 percent, compared with favorite son Rubio at 28 percent and Ted Cruz with 12 percent, Quinnipiac University pollsters said.
Whoever wins Florida’s 99-delegate jackpot on March 15 will take a huge step toward capturing the GOP presidential nomination, which requires 1,237 delegates.
“Florida is the single biggest prize of the primary season because it is the largest state to allocate its delegates on a winner-take-all basis,” said pollster Peter Brown.
“If Senator Rubio can’t win in his own home state, it is difficult to see how he can win elsewhere.”
In Texas, meanwhile, a Monmouth University poll found Lone Star State Sen. Ted Cruz easily gliding past Trump, 38 percent to 23 percent, in next week’s Super Tuesday primary.
Rubio comes in third with 21 percent.
The university’s survey was at odds with another poll released Wednesday by Emerson College in Massachusetts, which showed the Texas race as a virtual toss-up.
That conflicting poll had Cruz leading Trump by only 1 percentage point, 29 to 28.