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A poll of registered voters in Ohio has Donald Trump with a slight lead over Hillary Clinton
and Marc Kovac
YOUNGSTOWN
The political party chairmen in Mahoning County say a poll of Ohioans showing Republican Donald Trump with a slight lead over Democrat Hillary Clinton for president in this key swing state is a good early sign for their respective candidates.
The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute released a poll Tuesday showing Trump ahead of Clinton 43 percent to 39 percent with the rest saying they wouldn’t vote for either of the presumptive presidential candidates, don’t know or would choose someone else.
The margin of error of the poll of 1,042 registered Ohio voters is three percentage points.
The institute’s last poll, in February, had Trump ahead of Clinton 44 percent to 42 percent.
Quinnipiac also polled voters in Florida and Pennsylvania with the results being the same in both of those swing states: Clinton with 43 percent to 42 percent for Trump. That’s a statistical dead heat between the presumptive presidential candidates with a 3-percentage-point margin of error.
Quinnipiac’s poll was conducted from April 27 to this past Sunday and included several days before Ohio Gov. John Kasich and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas suspended their Republican presidential campaigns.
“I’m absolutely encouraged by the results,” said Mark Munroe, Mahoning County Republican Party chairman.
“The hope always was should Trump be the nominee, and he is, that we’d see his numbers improve.”
Munroe said this poll’s results are encouraging, but it’s important to remember the election is about six months away.
“Donald Trump is clearly energizing voters,” he said. “There’s no enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton.”
Mahoning County Democratic Chairman David Betras said, however, “People should be very, very scared of the prospect of President Donald Trump. That’s something that’s reflected in the Quinnipiac numbers. An overwhelming majority of voters don’t believe he has the temperament to handle an international crisis. They believe Secretary Clinton is more intelligent, and they reject Trump’s stance on immigration, a cornerstone of his campaign.”
More Ohio voters said Clinton had the right kind of temperament to handle an international crisis – 51 percent compared to 29 percent for Trump.
“By wide margins, voters in all three states say Clinton is more intelligent than Trump and by smaller margins, voters in all three states say she has higher moral standards,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll.
In Ohio, 62 percent of voters had an unfavorable view of Clinton, while 57 percent had a negative view of Trump. Ohioans polled said Trump would do a better job than Clinton handling the economy and terrorism.
“In the coming months, we’re going to concentrate on three things: making sure Ohioans in general and Valley residents in particular, understand the stark differences between Hillary Clinton and Trump; focus on the implications of which candidate and party will appoint Supreme Court justices in the years ahead, and driving Democratic and Democratic-leaning turnout to its highest level ever,” Betras said.
He added: “I don’t think the last task will be hard to accomplish if we do an effective job on the first two.”