Donald Trump’s campaign is reportedly concerned about the number of private polls in Ohio, while other polls suggest that the former president is on track to retain the majority in the Buckeye State in November.
A recent article in The New York Times reported on the “worst three weeks” of Trump’s latest battle for the White House since Vice President Kamala Harris officially entered the race.
One cause for concern for the campaign were two private polls recently conducted in Ohio by GOP pollsters that were not Newsweekwhich reportedly shows that Trump received less than 50 percent of the vote against Harris in the state.
Trump’s office was asked for comment on the poll.
Ohio was considered an indicator state for decades because it was the home of the eventual presidential candidate in every election between Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and Trump in 2016. That trend was reversed in 2020, when Trump managed to hold Ohio by 8 percentage points (53 percent to 45) but lost the election overall to President Joe Biden.
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If Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, lose Ohio and its 17 electoral votes to Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, it would be a devastating blow to Republicans’ electoral chances.
However, recent polls show that Trump is the clear favorite to win Ohio again in November.
At the end of July, an AARP Research poll found that Trump was ten points ahead of Harris in the state (52 percent to 42).
Even when other White House contenders, such as independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (9 percent), were included in the poll, Trump had a 9 percentage point lead.
A poll conducted by the Remington Research Group in early July, when Biden was still in the race, also showed Trump with a double-digit lead over the president (51 percent to 41).
A June poll by the Marist organization showed Trump leading Biden by 7 percentage points (48 percent to 41 percent) in the overall poll. Kennedy is a distant third with 5 percent.
The poll showed Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown beating his Republican challenger for the seat, Bernie Moreno, by 5 points (50 percent to 45 percent).
“Unlike national voting patterns in 2016 and 2020, Ohio voters are now poised to split their votes between the president and the Senate,” Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, said in a statement.
“The Buckeye State’s electoral votes are likely to go to Trump, while Ohioans are ready to return Democrat Brown to the U.S. Senate.”
