COLUMBUS – According to a new poll of voters nationwide, Gov. John Kasich would win a head-to-head race against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton but not Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The Quinnipiac University poll of registered U.S. voters released Thursday morning showed Kasich defeating Clinton by a margin of 47 percent to 39 percent, the widest margin of all the Republican candidates, most of whom would defeat Clinton if the election were held today, according to the poll of voters conducted between Feb. 10 and Feb. 15. The only GOP candidate with smaller numbers than Clinton was front-runner Donald Trump, who trailed 44-43 percent.
National poll – #Sanders beats top Republicans, #Clinton…. not so much#Election2016 https://t.co/eXTikQ6U1u pic.twitter.com/8vRWggAuao
— Quinnipiac University Poll (@QuinnipiacPoll) February 18, 2016
Sanders, the more left-leaning of the two Democratic candidates would beat any of those in the Republican field, including Kasich, though the Ohio governor trails him by only three percentage points, compared to 10 for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz and 6-point margins for Sen. Marco Rubio and Trump.
The poll of 1,342 voters has a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points.
While Kasich has concentrated his presidential campaign this week on South Carolina, he’ll spend the actual primary day Saturday campaigning and raising money in Massachusetts, one of the few northern states to hold its primary on Super Tuesday, March first.
Kasich’s campaign says he may return to South Carolina Saturday night to await primary results.
Wednesday marked the start of early voting in Ohio and the Franklin County Board of Elections says 196 people turned out to cast absentee ballots in person at the board’s office on Morse Road, spokesman Ben Piscitelli said.
Registered voters can cast their ballots early over the course of four weeks before Ohio’s March 15 primary, including two Saturdays and a Sunday, without giving any reason.