Most Jacksonville residents want no part of Trump's Republican National Convention: poll

A new poll of residents in Jacksonville, Florida shows that nearly 60 percent don't want their city to host President Donald Trump's Republican National Committee.

Politico reports that the latest poll by the University of North Florida has found that "58 percent of Jacksonville voters surveyed oppose the RNC convention, and 42 percent support it."

The poll also found that, even among people who support hosting the RNC, there was significant concern about how it could increase the spread of the novel coronavirus.

"National nominating conventions are polarizing events, and unsurprisingly the levels of support for Jacksonville hosting the RNC varies dramatically by partisanship," Dr. Michael Binder, the director of the University of North Florida's Public Opinion Research Lab, explained. "Under the backdrop of a global pandemic that appears to have come more fervently to Florida, the opposition to this event being hosted locally seems much more concerning."

Binder also said that the poll results reflected the fact that Florida has been seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases after the state moved to reopen.

"More people know somebody that has contracted the virus and the economy is not turning around as quickly as people might have hoped two months ago," he said.