2 polls show Gillum in lead

Andrew Gillum is leading Ron DeSantis in the Florida governor’s race, two polls released Wednesday found.

Democrat Gillum has a 6 percentage point lead over Republican DeSantis in the Reuters/Ipsos/University of Virginia Center for Politics Poll.

Gillum has a 2 percentage point lead over DeSantis in a Florida Atlantic University survey.

The Reuters/Ipsos/UVA poll found Gillum has the support of 50 percent of likely voters. DeSantis is supported by 44 percent of likely voters.

The FAU poll reported Gillum with 41 percent to 39 percent for DeSantis.

Gillum is currently mayor of Tallahassee.

DeSantis is a former Space Coast congressman. He resigned last week, four months before the end of his third term, to devote more time to campaigning.

Party support

Democrats overwhelmingly favor Gillum. In the FAU poll, he had the support of 74 percent of likely Democratic voters.

Republicans overwhelmingly support DeSantis. FAU reported that 69 percent of Republican likely voters support him.

Independent voters were split, with 36 percent for DeSantis and 30 percent for Gillum.

Independent voters represent fertile ground for both candidates. The poll found 25 percent of independents were undecided, compared with just 13 percent of Democrats and 10 percent of Republicans.

Fine print

The margins of error are 3 percentage points for the FAU poll. Breakdowns for smaller groups, such as Democrats, Republicans and independents, have higher margins of error.

The Reuters/Ipsos/UVA poll had a credibility interval of plus or minus 4 percentage points. A credibility interval is used as a range of accuracy for online polls in which respondents opt in to participating.

The FAU Business and Economics Polling Initiative survey of 850 Florida likely voters was conducted online and through automated calls to people with landline telephones from Thursday through Sunday.

The Reuters/Ipsos/UVA Poll was conducted Sept. 5 to 12. A sample of 2,015 Florida adults, including 1,000 likely voters, were interviewed online.

PHELAN M. EBENHACK/AP STEVE CANNON/AP Ron DeSantis, left, is the Republican nominee for Florida governor. Andrew Gillum is the Democratic nominee.