WASHINGTON — (CNN) Ohio Gov. John Kasich has a narrow edge over Donald Trump in his home state’s Republican presidential race, a new Monmouth University poll shows.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, continues to lead Democratic rival Bernie Sanders by 14 percentage points — 54%-40% — in the Buckeye State, the poll shows.
Ohio will be a key battleground on Tuesday, when it and four other big states — Florida, Illinois, North Carolina and Missouri — hold primary contests.
On the Republican side, its 66 delegates are winner-take-all — and must-win for Kasich’s struggling campaign. He tops Trump, 40% to 35%, in the Monmouth poll.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are both well behind. Cruz has 15% support, while Rubio has 5%.
What won’t hurt Trump: Friday night’s chaotic clashes between protesters and supporters in Chicago.
The survey found that 67% of Republicans said that will have no impact at all on their vote, while 16% said it makes them more likely to support Trump, and just 14% said it makes them less likely to do so.
The poll found relatively few late deciders. Just 8% of those surveyed said they’d already voted early, while 45% said they’re completely decided on a candidate and 29% have a strong preference. Just 8% have only a slight preference, while 11% are undecided.
Among Democrats, Clinton’s double-digit lead indicates that she might be able to stop Sanders from repeating his stunning win in Michigan last week.
And 12% of Democrats said they’d already voted early, while 43% are completely decided on a candidate. Another 22% have a strong preference, while 12% have just a slight preference for Clinton or Sanders and another 11% are completely undecided.
The poll was conducted March 11-13. It includes 503 likely Republican primary voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, and 302 likely Democratic primary voters with a margin of error of 5.6 points.
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