2018 Campaign: Cordray and Brown Hold Early Advantage

With fewer than five months until the November election – and even fewer with early voting – a pair of recent credible polls show Democrat Rich Cordray edging Republican Mike DeWine in the race for Ohio governor. And, in the U.S. Senate contest incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown has a healthy lead over Republican Jim Renacci.

The polls also measured Ohioan’s approval ratings of President Trump, Governor Kasich and U.S. Senator Rob Portman.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll said: “The closeness between Richard Cordray and Attorney General Mike DeWine should not be surprising, since this race for governor is a re-run of the race between the two men in 2010 for the attorney general’s job that DeWine won by 1 percentage point. Now, Cordray and DeWine split the key independent vote and get roughly the same share of their party bases.”

Another poll released this week this one by Suffolk University and the Cincinnati Enquirer showed Cordray leads DeWine 43% to 36%. That poll pegs Sherrod Brown with a 16% lead over Renacci. “The composition of the electorate will be different in the midterm than it was in the 2016 election, when Donald Trump won Ohio,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Research Center. “Without Trump on the ballot, some of his supporters will stay away. But the anti-Trump voters are intensely focused, and that could benefit the Democrats on the ballot.” 6/14/2018