Democrat Andrew Gillum has opened up a big lead in the Florida governor race

Andrew Gillum is on track to become Florida's next governor.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows that the Tallahassee mayor, who unexpectedly won the state's Democratic gubernatorial primary last month, is 9 points ahead of Republican challenger Rep. Ron DeSantis. Support for the candidates is pretty staunchly divided along party lines, but independents are strongly in Gillum's favor, 56 percent to DeSantis' 40 percent.

Gillum, a progressive Democrat with Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) endorsement, was far from a shoo-in to win the Democratic primary last month. Yet since his win, Gillum has pulled ahead of the President Trump-backed DeSantis. A Quinnipiac poll released Sept. 4 put Gillum 3 points ahead of DeSantis, and an NBC News/Marist poll out Tuesday had him 5 points up among likely voters.

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Wednesday's Quinnipiac poll shows that 54 percent of likely voters would opt for Gillum, while 45 percent prefer DeSantis. Gillum is also looking more positive to voters overall, drawing in a 55 percent favorability rating to DeSantis' 42 percent. Of those likely voters, 94 percent say they're decided on their vote.

Those results aren't as good as DeSantis' camp should expect, seeing as he's far outspent Gillum on TV ads, a Quinnipiac poll director says. Gillum's pay-less approach proved similarly successful during the Democratic primary.

Quinnipiac surveyed 888 likely voters by landlines or cellphone from Sept. 20-24 with a 4-point margin of error. See more results here.