Meek Says Crist Should Drop Out, Not Him

After the heated televised debate in Orlando last week, new polls show that Marco Rubio now has a two-to-one lead over Charlie Crist.  A survey of likely voters showed Rubio with 50% of the vote, Crist with 25%, and Meek at 19%.  Just like the Republican Primary, this race has gone from a tight race, to a blowout.

As should be expected in a race where three candidates are fighting each other for votes, there is talk of someone dropping out to make this a closer race.  Recently, the person facing the pressure to drop out is Kendrick Meek.  With only 19% in the polls, he would be an extreme long shot in the highly unlikely even that Crist were to drop out.  I suspect that if Meek dropped out, some of the 19% supporting him would not show up on November 2nd.  The rest would likely switch their vote to Crist, who is fairly moderate.  This would make it a more interesting race with Crist returning to the mid-30's to low 40's in terms of his support in the polls.  If Crist were to drop out, Meek would not take as large of a portion if the situation were reversed.  If he took 60% of Crist's votes he would still trail by double digits in the polls.

Meek says he will not drop out because he earned his spot in this race by winning the Democratic primary.  He says that Crist on the other hand ran as an independent because he chickened out when he realized he could not win the Republican primary.

In my opinion, neither is likely to drop out of the race.  This is good news for Marco Rubio.  If no one drops out, he wins this race in a landslide.

Meek Says Crist Should Drop Out

Poll Data