COLUMBUS – Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton leads the field of Republican candidates in two out of three key swing states, in a poll testing voters’ opinions about those running for the White House in 2016. The only exception: Ohio, where Gov. John Kasich leads the former Secretary of State.
While Clinton leads or is in a too-close-to-call race against every GOP candidate in Florida and Pennsylvania, Kasich leads her by a margin of 47 to 40 percent in Ohio, according to the independent Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll released Wednesday morning.
Rubio runs best against Clinton in the overall poll, which focuses on Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania because, since 1960, no candidate has won the presidential race without taking at least two of the three states.
Clinton leads the rest of the Republican field in the Buckeye State but has some close races. She runs a dead heat with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul with both getting 43 percent favorable responses from those polled.
In other races, her 42-41 percent margin over former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush – who had not officially launched his campaign when the poll was taken June 4-15 – is almost imperceptible. She leads Florida Sen. Marco Rubio by only 3 points, 45 percent to 42 percent; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker by 4 points (44-40), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (44-39) and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (46-41), and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by 8 points, 47 percent to 39 percent.
Sixty-one percent of Ohio voters say that Kasich is honest and 70 percent that he has strong leadership qualities.
While 40 percent said they believed Clinton to be honest, 53 percent said they did not, though 60 percent said she was a strong leader.
The poll surveyed 1,191 Ohio voters with a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.