Sen. Marco Rubio. | AP Photo/John Raoux Poll: Rubio's lead over Murphy in U.S. Senate race grows to 7 points Rubio leads Murphy, 47-40 percent, among likely voters

Republican GOP Sen. Marco Rubio’s lead over Democrat Patrick Murphy in the closely watched U.S. Senate race has more than doubled since late August, according to a poll released today by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.

The poll of likely voters found Rubio ahead of Murphy, 47-40 percent, a seven-point margin, with 5 percent backing Libertarian candidate Paul Stanton and two percent divided among four other candidates on the ballot.


In late August, Rubio held a slim 46-43 percent lead over the Jupiter congressman.

The poll shows Rubio beating Murphy in every part of the state, except southeast Florida. And independents prefer Rubio over Murphy, 46-38 percent. Murphy fares better against Rubio among women, 44-42 percent, and among blacks, 77-9 percent.

Mason-Dixon pollster J. Brad Coker said the Rubio campaign has been successful in raising Murphy’s negative rating, noting that Murphy’s unfavorable rose from 11 percent in August to 25 percent. During the same span, Rubio’s favorable/unfavorable numbers have remained mostly unchanged since last month.

For months, Rubio and outside GOP groups have spent millions of dollars in TV ads hammering Murphy for pumping up his resume and questioning his credibility, while Murphy has struggled to gain name recognition against an incumbent senator who ran for president.

Coker also credits Rubio’s strong showing among the state’s Hispanic voters for boosting his lead over Murphy. Hispanics favor Rubio over Murphy, 53-38 percent, a margin that is helping Rubio draw 16 percent of Democratic voters.

“It is extremely difficult now for a Democrat to win in Florida while losing the Hispanic vote,” said Coker in a statement accompanying the release of his firm’s latest poll numbers in the Senate race.

Among Hispanic voters in the presidential contest, Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump, 64-29 percent, a margin that Coker says is the “primary reason” the former secretary of state is keeping a statewide edge over the billionaire businessman.

Interviews were done with 820 registered voters, from Sept. 27-29, on landlines and cellphones. The poll’s margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.