For Immediate Release
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Contact:
Sarah Bascom, sarah@bascomllc.com
Kristen Grissom, kgrissom@bascomllc.com
Tallahassee, Fla. – The Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) Center for Political Strategy today released the initial findings from its Q2 2025 Statewide General Election Poll which was presented in detail at the 2025 AIF Summer Policy and Political Retreat in Destin, Florida.
Israel:
Florida Republicans lead Democrats by 31-points on fighting for pro-Israel policies. 45% of voters believe Florida Republicans are doing a better job fighting for Israel compared to only 13% for Florida Democrats. Republicans hold a 27-point advantage on Israel amongst Independent voters (39-12%).
Top Issues:
Economic pocketbook issues remain top of mind for Florida voters with 64% of voters citing economic issues as their top concern. No other issue outside of economic issues broke double digits.
Political Environment:
The political environment favors Republicans with voters preferring a generic Republican candidate for state legislature over a generic Democratic candidate by a 5-point margin (47-42%).
Issue Handling:
Republicans perform better than Democrats on a majority of issues facing the state, including Israel (+31%), reducing inflation/everyday costs (+12%), education (+7%), lowering property and home insurance costs (+7%), and helping the middle class (+5%).
Governor DeSantis Approval:
Governor DeSantis’ job approval is above water by an impressive 6-points (53-47%). The Governor enjoys broad popularity amongst Republican voters where 87% approve of his job performance.
Extending Federal Healthcare Tax Credits:
There is overwhelming bipartisan support for extending the federal healthcare tax credits that are set to expire at the end of 2025. 78% of Florida voters agree that the federal government should extend the tax credit which helps more than 24 million working Americans purchase their own healthcare coverage – including 82% of Republicans, 75% of Democrats, and 74% of Independents. Additionally, there is strong positive intensity for the measure with a 53% majority of voters indicating they “strongly approve” extending the healthcare tax credits.
Tourist Development Tax (TDT):
A strong majority of voters approve of Florida’s Tourist Development Tax (TDT) program. 81% of voters agree with the following proposal: “Florida’s program which makes tourists pay for tourism-related expenses, such as tourism marketing, sports facilities, and beach renourishment through taxes collected on hotel stays.” The TDT measure sees strong approval across all political ideologies including 88% of Republicans, 72% of Democrats, and 79% of Independents. Additionally, the TDT program has broad majority approval across all races and ethnicities including 85% of white voters, 68% of black voters, and 74% of Hispanic voters. Voters in the Orlando media market view the TDT program most favorably with a net approval rating of +73%.
Voter Registration:
As of May 2025, the current statewide voter registration shows Republicans continuing to grow their voter registration advantage over Democrats with a 1,310,797 (9.6%) registration advantage. There are currently 13,616,241 total active registered voters in Florida – including 5,521,778 Republicans (40.6%), 4,210,981 Democrats (30.9%), and 3,883,482 Independents (28.5%).
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 June 9-11th, 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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