Harris and Trump Tied in Florida’s Biggest County, Local Poll Finds

Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are tied to win Florida’s biggest county, according to a new poll.

The two presidential candidates both received 47 percent support in Miami-Dade, according to a poll commissioned by the County Commissioner Kevin Cabrera and conducted by the firm Inquire.

It surveyed 500 likely voters in the county and was conducted from August 22 to August 25. It found that 6 percent of respondents remain undecided when it comes to their votes.

Historically, although the state has leaned Republican, the county of Miami-Dade, which encapsulates 34 cities, including Miami, has been a Democratic stronghold. Trump won Florida in both 2016 and 2020, while Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton won Miami-Dade in both elections respectively.

While the county being split between Trump and Harris could be seen as a blow for Democrats, the tie may represent a positive trajectory for the party — before Harris took over the nomination, a November survey by Ulvert indicated that Biden was behind by 11 points in the county.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Miami-Dade has a population of 2,701,767 as of 2020. It is heavily comprised of individuals ranging from their mid-20s to mid-50s, with the median age being 40.9, and has a large Hispanic population of nearly 2 million as of 2020.

As of August 1, Miami-Dade had 518,308 registered Democrat voters and 458,218 registered Republican voters, according to the county’s voter registration statistics.

The current mayor, Daniella Levine Cara, is a Democrat who was the first Jewish woman to serve as mayor of the county.

However, the county’s Democratic leanings are an outlier in the state. Newsweek previously reported that Florida has historically been a swing state, but is now considered safely Republican.

Trump is still the lead in polls state-wide according to FiveThirtyEight, although his margin has shrunk since the beginning of the month, suggesting it could be a tighter race in the state than he had anticipated.

Earlier this month, David Shoar, a Florida Senate candidate endorsed by Trump, lost the Republican primary election to Florida state Representative Tom Leek, who had been backed by the state’s governor Ron DeSantis by a significant margin of 19 percent.

DeSantis initially ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, but dropped out of the race in January and endorsed the former president instead.

Newsweek reached out to Harris’ and Trump’s campaigns and Cabrera for comment via email.

Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.