Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has successfully raised the negative rates of his challenger Democrat Patrick Murphy as he has widened his lead in the state, a new poll shows.
While his favorability stayed about the same, Murphy's unfavorable numbers rose 14 percentage points since August, the poll reported. He now stands at 27 percent favorable, 25 percent unfavorable, the Mason-Dixon Polling and Research survey found.
Rubio's numbers have not changed significantly since August, according to the poll's analysis. His favorable rating is 45 percent, and his unfavorable rating is 34 percent.
Rubio has increased his lead overall by 3 points since August and now leads 47 percent to 40 percent among the 820 registered likely voters polled.
Another key to Rubio's lead is his big advantage among Hispanic voters in Florida. They favor Rubio 53 percent to 38 percent, the poll showed, and it is very hard for a candidate to win Florida nowadays without the Hispanic vote, Mason Dixon's analysis showed.
The poll was conducted Sept. 27-29 and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
