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Poll: Romney, Perry get support in Ohio
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
The two top GOP presidential candidates among Ohio voters would hold their own against Democrat Barack Obama in next year’s general election.
That’s according to the latest survey by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Among 1,301 registered voters contacted by surveyors earlier this month, 24 percent preferred former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney among Republican candidates. Texas Gov. Rick Perry was second with 20 percent.
No other GOP hopeful received support of higher than 9 percent.
“The Republican presidential race in Ohio at this point is shifting back and forth between [Romney and Perry],” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a released statement. “Perry’s strength is among two large constituencies within the Republican coalition. In a two-man race, Perry defeats Romney 57 percent to 30 percent among Republicans who consider themselves part of the tea-party movement. He leads Romney 48 percent to 33 percent among Republicans who are white, evangelical Christians.”
Eyeing November, President Obama slightly edged both of the top contenders, however, by a margin of 44 percent to 41 percent with Perry and 44 percent to 42 percent with Romney.
Quinnipiac characterized the results as “too close to call.”
“President Barack Obama’s standing among all Ohio voters is back to its lowest ever,” Brown said. “They give him a 53 [percent] to 42 percent disapproval rating on his job performance, and say by 51 [percent] to 43 percent say he does not deserve another term in the Oval Office. But when he is matched against Perry and Romney, those races are statistical ties.”
Connecticut-based Quinnipiac regularly gauges Ohioans’ opinions of candidates and issues. Its most recent presidential poll included 423 Republican voters.
The results have a margin of error of about 3 percent.