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Hillary Clinton loses ground in swing states
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Expected Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has lost ground to potential Republican challengers in three swing states, according to a poll released Tuesday.
But Clinton still is outpacing most of the GOP field in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania, according to the Quinnipiac University’s latest findings.
The exceptions were in Florida and Pennsylvania, where a couple of results were within the margin of error — former Gov. Jeb Bush topped Clinton in Florida, 45 percent-42 percent, while U.S. Sen. Rand Paul topped her in Pennsylvania, 45 percent-44 percent.
“On the plus side, Secretary Clinton is considered a strong leader — a key characteristic for voters when picking a president, more so than her leading, but lesser- known, potential GOP opponents,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement. “But about half the voters in all three states question her honesty and trustworthiness. Majorities in each state think Clinton still has questions to answer about her emails.”
Connecticut-based Quinnipiac regularly gauges voters’ opinions on candidates and issues in Ohio and other swing states.
Over the past week, it questioned 1,077 Ohio voters, 1,036 Pennsylvania voters and 1,087 Florida voters about potential presidential matchups. The results have a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.
In Ohio, Bush, Paul, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee all gained ground on Clinton from the last Quinnipiac poll.
But Clinton still outpaced them and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz by 5 percentage points to 11 percentage points.
Clinton had a 51 percent-43 percent favorability rating among Ohio voters. Bush, Christie and Cruz had negative ratings, while Paul and Huckabee had positive results. Rubio and Walker also have positive ratings, though more than half of respondents said they didn’t know enough about them.
Gov. John Kasich, who is considering a presidential run, was not included.
Among other results, Ohio voters were evenly divided on Clinton and her email issues as secretary of state. Sixty-one percent, however, said that issue wouldn’t affect their vote, and 54 percent said a congressional investigation would be politically motivated.
Also, Ohio voters were split on Clinton’s character: 47 percent said she is not honest and trustworthy, while 46 percent said the opposite.