In Ohio poll, only Biden tops Trump

— Former Vice COLUMBUS

President Joe Biden holds an 8-point lead over President Donald Trump among Ohio voters and Biden is the only leading Democratic candidate who could beat the incumbent president in Ohio at this point, according to a poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University.

The other top Democratic candidates — U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg — are in a statistical tie against Trump in Ohio, the poll found.

Biden’s support comes from women, African-Americans and independent voters while men are nearly evenly split for Trump and Biden and Trump holds a 3-point lead among whites, the poll found.

Ohio lawmakers moved the 2020 presidential primary to March 17.

In the Democratic primary of 25 candidates, Biden would get 31 percent in Ohio, Sanders 14 percent, Harris 14 percent, Warren 13 percent.

All the other candidates are polling in single digits, including U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Youngstown, the only Ohioan in the race.

Assistant poll director Peter Brown said in a written statement that Biden’s blue-collar image helps him.

“With Ohio certainly a blue-collar state, it is no surprise he is the Democrat who runs best against President Donald Trump and is solidly ahead in the Democratic primary in the Buckeye State,” Brown said. “Biden runs best against President Trump in every Quinnipiac University state poll so far.”

A majority of Ohio voters — 52 percent — disapprove of how Trump is handling his job while 43 percent approve. Nearly six in 10 Ohioans say they’re better off financially today than they were in 2016.

The poll of 1,431 Ohio voters was conducted July 17-22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. The margin of error for the 556 Democrat and independents leaning Democratic portion is plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.