The U.S. midterm elections are, at this point, right around the corner. In November, U.S. voters will be going to the polls to decide who will represent them in a whole host of offices around the country, and in those rounds of elections, Democrats hope to manage to grow their share of national power.
There’s more to national political power than positions in Congress; state level races play big parts, too. On that front, Democrats got some relatively good news this week as they continue to prepare for the midterms. Two polls released both have Democrat and former Obama admin official Richard Cordray leading Republican Mark Dewine, who currently serves as the state’s attorney general, in the race to be Ohio’s next governor. There is not an overabundance of polls measuring voters’ opinions about this race to begin with.
In one poll, a Suffolk University/Cincinnati Enquirer undertaking, Cordray is ahead of Dewine by seven percent, finishing with 43 percent of measured support to his 36 percent. That same polls measured other items, too, like the candidate voters plan to support in the Ohio U.S. Senate race later this year, and Democrats are leading on that front too.
Incumbent Sherrod Brown was supported by 53 percent of respondents while his Republican challenger Jim Renacci only captured the support of 37 percent of those polled.
Although it’s not the only issue people are focused on, the presidency of Donald Trump does loom large in Ohio state politics going into November. 21 percent of Suffolk University/Cincinnati Enquirer respondents cited his presidency as the “most important issue” for them going into the Senate race.
The sinking Republican party showed up in another Ohio governor’s race poll this week too, although at not quite as prominent a level as in the other.
In a Quinnipiac University poll released this week, Cordray finished with 42 percent of respondents’ support while Dewine was only able to capture 40 percent of respondents’ support. That margin does fall within the poll’s margin of error.
At the same time, Brown finished with a substantial lead in that poll too, coming in with 51 percent of the hypothetical vote to Renacci’s 34 percent.
Quinnipiac also measured the Trump presidency as a substantial factor in the major elections to be held in Ohio later this year, with 30 percent of respondents saying that their vote will be intended as opposition to President Trump. 28 percent said their vote would be to express support for Trump, while 39 percent said that considerations about the presidency did not weigh into their decision of who to vote for in the Senate race.
A similar trend of a portion of voters intending their still-to-be-cast ballots later this year as opposition to President Trump can no doubt be said to be at play in the Ohio governor’s race as well.
Whoever wins the governor’s race in Ohio, they will be replacing Republican John Kasich, who can not run again due to term limitations. Although it’s not as though he’s abandoned conservatism, having spearheaded anti-abortion legislation and the like. Kasich has over recent years himself been an opponent of President Trump when the opportunity has presented itself. In the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he was the last candidate to formally concede in the face of Trump’s rise to the top.
Come later this year, the minor opposition Kasich has waged may very well snowball beyond him through a wave of Democratic electoral victories.
Featured Image via Win McNamee/Getty Images
