Poll: Donald Trump Opens General Election with Commanding Lead over Joe Biden in Ohio

Donald Trump and Joe Biden
Scott Olson, Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Nick Gilbertson

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, begins the general election with a nine-point lead over President Joe Biden in Ohio, according to an Emerson College/Nexstar Media poll.

The poll, “sponsored by Nexstar Media” and released on Wednesday, shows that Trump trounces Biden in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up in the Buckeye State. Of the 1,300 registered voters sampled across the state, 50 percent will vote for Trump, while 41 percent back Biden. Another nine percent are undecided but largely lean toward the 45th president.

When the undecided demographic was pressed on which way it leans, 57 percent chose Trump, while 44 percent selected Biden. Once accounted for in the full sample, Trump’s lead slightly expands — he and Biden register at 55 percent and 45 percent, respectively.

Trump maintains a commanding lead over Biden in a larger field that includes independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West as well as Green Party candidate Jill Stein. In this five-way race, Trump scores 47 percent of the response, followed by Biden at 38 percent. Kennedy comes in third with six percent, while West and Stein each take one percent. Seven percent are undecided.

Emerson College gauged how committed respondents were to the candidates they selected in the five-way race, asking if there was room for them to change their minds. Just over 80 percent said they are “definitely” voting for the candidate they selected, while nineteen percent said they could alter their choice.

Emerson College conducted the survey from March 7 — the day of Biden’s State of the Union Address — through March 10, and it carries a credibility interval of ± 2.6 percentage points.

The poll’s release comes as Trump and Biden clinched their respective parties’ nominations on Tuesday evening. Trump, in a post on Truth Social, wrote it is his “great honor to be representing the Republican Party as its Presidential Nominee.”


“Our Party is UNITED and STRONG, and fully understands that we are running against the Worst, Most Incompetent, Corrupt, and Destructive President in the History of the United States,” he added.

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