@PatriciaMazzei

Democrat Hillary Clinton is ahead of Republican Donald Trump by 7 percentage points in Florida and leads him by similar margins in three other swing states, according to a new poll.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey of Florida shows Clinton besting Trump 44-37 percent in a head-to-head match-up. When third-party candidates are taken into account, she gets 41 percent to Trump's 36 percent, Libertarian Gary Johnson's 7 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein's 4 percent.

The other states where Marist found similar Clinton leads are Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia.

The Florida poll's results could cause some whiplash, coming two days after a Quinnipiac University survey found Clinton had lost her edge over Trump in the state, and Trump now led 42-39 percent.

Marist surveyed slightly fewer respondents (871 compared to 1,015) over fewer days (July 5-11 compared to June 30-July 11). Marist's error margin was 3.3 percentage points; Quinnipiac's was 3.1. Both universities polled registered voters.

There's no month-to-month comparison in the Marist poll, whereas Quinnipiac showed the Florida numbers shifting against Clinton.

In Florida, the safe takeaway when polls differ is that numbers tighten as the general election gets closer -- and the nation's largest swing state usually sees close presidential races.

According to Marist, Clinton's favorability rating is slightly better than Trump's in the state. She has a net rating of -21 percentage points, with 37 percent of respondents viewing her favorably and 58 percent unfavorably. Trump has a net rating of -27 percentage points, with favorable-unfavorable numbers of 34-61 percent

In a hypothetical U.S. Senate match-up, Marist found Republican Sen. Marco Rubio ahead of potential Democratic rival Patrick Murphy by 47-44 percent -- a much narrower gap than Quinnipiac, which found Rubio had opened a 13-point lead over Murphy.