New poll: Trump loses ground to Clinton in Ohio

June 22, 2016 at 12:02a.m.

COLUMBUS

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump are evenly split among Ohio voters, with the billionaire businessman losing ground to the former first lady in the past month.

Clinton and Trump also are statistically tied in Pennsylvania, though Clinton leads Trump in Florida.

Those were the results of a new swing state poll released Tuesday by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, the Connecticut-based group that regularly gauges the opinions of voters in Ohio and other states on candidate and issues.

The latest survey included 971 Ohio voters, 975 Florida voters and 950 Pennsylvania voters.

The results have a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.

The Pennsylvania results were in line with a May 10 poll, but Clinton gained ground in Ohio and Florida.

“Secretary Hillary Clinton is pulling ahead in Florida, but the pictures in Ohio and Pennsylvania are much less clear,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll, said in a released statement.

“The at-times bitter verbal battles between Trump and some Republicans leaders is showing in these numbers. In these three key states, Clinton is doing better, and in the case of Florida much better, among Democrats than Trump is among Republicans. Traditionally GOP presidential candidates score better on this party loyalty test,” Brown said.

A majority of Ohio voters questioned believe Clinton is better prepared to be president (57 percent, versus 33 percent for Trump), has higher moral standards (45 percent-37 percent) and is more intelligent (53 percent-36 percent).

But Trump was viewed as more honest and trustworthy (44 percent-37 percent), more inspiring (46 percent-40 percent) and a stronger leader (49 percent-41 percent).

“One reason why Trump may be doing better in Ohio, and for that matter in Pennsylvania as well, is that both states have small Hispanic populations, compared to Florida,” Brown said.

“Given Trump’s comments on immigration and descendants of immigrants, the much larger Hispanic population in Florida is obviously a boost there for Hillary Clinton.”