Insider Advantage: Hillary breaks 50% in Florida... [View All]

The latest InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion poll shows Hillary Clinton has opened a commanding lead over her Democratic rivals in Florida, and continues to lead the field in South Carolina – an early primary state Barack Obama can’t afford to lose.

In Florida, Clinton has increased her percentage among likely Democratic primary voters to 53 percent, up from 36 percent in an InsiderAdvantage /Majority Opinion poll conducted in late August.

The new poll gives Clinton a nearly 33-point lead in Florida over Obama, her closest rival.

“The biggest movement in Florida is that we are beginning to see African-American voters moving in the direction of Clinton,” said InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery.

Clinton currently has the support of 49 percent of African-American Democratic likely primary voters, while Obama has the support of 33 percent.

The only age quadrant in which Clinton is below 50 percent in Florida is among voters age 18-29. But Obama doesn’t benefit so much from the youth vote either – John Edwards has the support of 25 percent in this age group, while Obama has 22 percent.

In South Carolina – which Obama has indicated will be critical to his campaign – Clinton leads with 35 percent of likely Democratic primary voters. That’s down from the 43 percent she polled in a late July poll, but Obama’s 28 percent is nearly identical to what he got in the July poll. Clinton’s slide comes mostly from a movement of more Democratic voters into the “no opinion” column.

Obama garners 44 percent of African-American voters in the South Carolina poll, to Clinton’s 36 percent.