COLUMBUS – In a race marked by wide gender, age and racial gaps, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are running neck and neck in Ohio, as well as the other key presidential swing states of Florida and Pennsylvania, but Sen. Bernie Sanders runs stronger against the likely Republican nominee.
Clinton and Trump both have negative favorability ratings among voters in each state, compared to Sanders’ split score, according to a Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll released Tuesday.
The Swing State Poll focuses on Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania because since 1960 no candidate has won the presidential race without taking at least two of these three states.
In Ohio, Trump edges Clinton 43 to 39 percent in a presidential head-to-head matchup while Sanders gets 43 percent to Trump’s 41 percent.
Trump leads (51-36 percent) among men, while Clinton takes women (43–36 percent). White voters go Republican by a margin of 49-to 32 percent while 76 percent of non-white voters vote Democratic. Younger voters (18-34 years old) narrowly support Clinton while voters over 65 go 46 percent for Trump and 40 percent for Clinton. Independent voters go for Trump 40-37 percent.
Clinton gets a negative favorability rating — 62 percent of voters view her unfavorably — compared to Trump’s 57 percent negative favorability rating.
Ohio voters believe Trump would do a better job than Clinton handling the economy and would be more effective on terrorism, while a majority say Clinton is more intelligent, has higher moral standards and the temperament to handle an international crisis.
Three-quarters of Ohio voters support requiring voters to show photo ID, a majority believe illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. and apply for citizenship and oppose building a wall along the border with Mexico.
The poll, conducted between April 27 and May 8 has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.