White voters, wealthy, seniors led Trump triumph in Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Republican Donald Trump captured Florida's 29 electoral votes through the strong support of white voters, senior citizens and voters in late middle age, as well as the backing of the wealthy, middle-income voters and independent males.

Exit polling conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research showed Wednesday that slightly more Florida voters — around half — thought Trump would do a better job of handling the economy than Democrat Hillary Clinton. The economy was the most pressing issue for about half of Florida voters.

"Trump won my vote because even though he says a lot of bad things and he doesn't say the right things sometimes, he is a businessman," said Miami Lakes voter Axel Oritz. "He says what he feels and hopefully he'll take us Americans to the right direction."

More Florida voters were slightly less likely to see Clinton as honest and trustworthy than Trump. About 63 percent of Florida voters answered "no" when asked if Clinton was honest and trustworthy, while that number was 58 percent for Trump.

"Trump. He's no angel but I have a bigger problem not being able to trust Mrs. Clinton," said Miami voter Lindsey Carr.

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UNFAVORABLE VIEWS

Despite Trump's victory, slightly more Floridians had an unfavorable view of the Republican nominee compared to Clinton. Fifty-seven percent had an unfavorable view of the winner, compared to 53 percent of Florida voters with an unfavorable view of Clinton.

At the same, more than half of Florida voters didn't believe Trump had the temperament to serve effectively as president, while more than half of voters believed Clinton did.

Floridians were split on whether they approved of the job performance of President Obama, whose policies Clinton had been expected to continue.

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WOMEN AND EMAILS

Two-thirds of Florida voters said Trump's treatment of women bothered them to some degree. Slightly less than two-thirds of voters said they were bothered to some degree by Clinton's use of private email while Secretary of State.

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MOOD

Florida voters were evenly split on whether they believe the future for the next generation would be better or worse. Florida voters also were evenly split on whether their family's financial situation was better or worse compared to four years ago, and just under half felt it was about the same.

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GEOGRAPHY

More than 3 in 5 voters in small cities or rural areas preferred Trump, and Trump also led with suburban voters. Clinton was the preference of voters in cities with more than 50,000 residents.

The poll showed that almost three-quarters of Florida voters had made up their mind about their pick before the final month of the presidential race. But those voters who had made up their minds in the last month preferred Trump.

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The survey of 3,997 Florida voters was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research. This includes results from interviews conducted as voters left a random sample of 50 precincts statewide Tuesday, as well as 1,279 who voted early or absentee and were interviewed by landline or cellular telephone. Results for the full sample were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points; it is higher for subgroups.