COLUMBUS – If he were to get the Republican nomination for president – which seems like a long shot at this point – Gov. John Kasich would have no trouble carrying his home state over either potential Democratic nominee in the November general election, according to a poll released Wednesday morning.
Kasich leads former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by 17 percentage points and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by 19 points in the key swing state, according to the Quinnipiac University survey of Ohio voters.
Most of the other head-to-head matchups between the candidates are too close to call, Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said.
“The four leading Republican candidates either tie or lead former Secretary Clinton in Ohio, considered the best microcosm of the national electorate and a must-win for the GOP. Republicans have never won the White House without carrying Ohio,” he said.
Kasich tops Clinton 54 to 37 percent, including a 20-point lead among independent voters, and leads Sanders 54 to 35 percent with an 18-point edge among independents.
Brown says Kasich also has the best favorability rating of any candidate at 56 percent.
In Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, former Gov. Ted Strickland, the Democrat, gets 44 percent, with 42 percent for Republican incumbent Sen. Rob Portman. Independent voters go 42 percent for Strickland and 38 percent for Portman.
Portman tops his primary opponent, Cincinnati City Council member P.G. Sittenfeld, 48 to 29 percent.
The poll of 1,539 Ohio registered voters was conducted from Feb. 16 – 20 with a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points.