For Immediate Release
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Contact: Sarah Bascom / Kristen Grissom
Tallahassee, Fla. – The Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) Center for Political Strategy today released the initial findings from its Q1 2025 Statewide General Election Poll which will be presented in detail to members of the AIF Center for Political Strategy.
Top Issues:
Economic pocketbook issues remain top of mind for Florida voters with property insurance costs ranking as the most important issue currently facing Floridians (33%) followed by inflation (21%) and housing costs (11%) as the only other issues to break double digits.
When thinking specifically about rising prices, the top five costs causing Florida voters the greatest concern are as follows:
Political Environment:
The political environment favors Republicans with voters preferring a generic Republican candidate for state legislature over a generic Democratic candidate by a 7-point margin (48-41%).
Issue Handling:
Republicans perform better than Democrats on a majority of issues facing the state, including the economy (47-22%), reducing inflation/everyday costs (39-21%), helping the middle class (41-33%), education (42-32%), and protecting personal freedoms (48-38%). A plurality of voters (42%) believes neither party is doing an effective job lowering property and home insurance costs –the top issue in the state.
President Trump Approval:
President Donald Trump’s job performance is above water by an impressive 7-points (53-46%) with 45% of voters saying they “strongly approve” of his job performance. The broad coalition built by President Trump in the 2024 election is remaining intact where he continues to hold notable gains amongst Hispanics and African American males. Trump holds a +10 approval rating amongst Hispanics (55-45%) and nearly 4/10 black men approve of his job performance, as well.
Cyber Security Liability:
There is strong bipartisan support for protecting Florida companies from frivolous lawsuits against predatory cyber security liability claims. 70% of Florida voters agree Florida companies that agree to meet strict standards for protecting personal data from cyber-attacks should have some protections from lawsuits filed by predatory lawyers – including 80% of Republicans, 58% of Democrats, and 67% of Independents. Additionally, 82% of Trump voters and 57% of Harris voters also agree with the proposal.
Business Rent Tax:
A plurality of voters approve of eliminating the business rent tax on Florida businesses. 38% of voters agree that Florida should eliminate the business rent tax compared to 24% of voters who disagree. Republicans overwhelmingly support the measure by a 34-point margin (49-15%) and Independents also support the measure by 6-points (34-28%). Further, voters across all income brackets support the measure by double digits as well including low-income voters approving the measure by 14-points (36-22%), mid-income voters by 16-points (38-22%), and high-income voters by 16-points (41-25%).
Voter Registration:
As of the 2024 book closing, the current statewide voter registration shows Republicans continuing to grow their voter registration advantage over Democrats with a 1,157,794 (8.1%) registration advantage. There are currently 14,246,241 total active registered voters in Florida – including 5,632,888 Republicans (39.5%), 4,475,094 Democrats (31.4%), and 4,138,259 Independents (29%). Since the 2020 voter registration book closing, Republicans have seen a net gain of +434,462 voters while Democrats have seen a net loss of -848,179.
The AIF Center for Political Strategy has been closely monitoring Florida electoral trends through regular statewide polling, strategic legislative district polling, and focus groups throughout the state. For additional information on AIF’s Center for Political Strategy, visit aif.com/political.
METHODOLOGY: The AIF Center for Political Strategy poll consisted of 800 likely 2026 general election voters in Florida, and was conducted from February 10-13th, 2025 by McLaughlin & Associates. Interviews were collected via landlines, cell phones, and SMS/text messaging to web. The margin of error is +/- 3.5% at a 95% confidence interval. Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.
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