(The Center Square) – Ohio’s U.S. Senate race and the vote for a constitutional amendment to remove redistricting from elected officials is tightening as the General Election nears, according to a new poll.
While former President Donald Trump holds an unsurprising 7-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race, the Democracy and Public Policy Research Network at Bowling Green State University poll shows Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown holding a 47%-45% lead over Republican challenger Bernie Moreno.
The race is consistently called one of the most important in the country, and it’s become the most expensive.
“The contest between Brown and Moreno has continued to tighten and is clearly up for grabs,” Robert Alexander, political science professor at Bowling Green, said. “It has been impossible for voters in the state to escape the glut of campaign advertising – suggesting just how important this race is on a national scale.”
The poll showed Brown has 94% support among Democrats, while only 84% of Republicans support Moreno. Seven percent of voters are undecided, including 20% of independent voters.
Issue 1 would replace the Ohio Redistricting Commission – currently consisting of the governor, secretary of state, state auditor and appointments from the Senate president, speaker of the House, and Senate and House minorities leaders and dominated by Republicans – the Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission.
The new commission members would be Democrats, Republicans and independents who broadly represent different areas and demographics of the state. Current and former politicians, party officials, lobbyists and large political donors would be banned from serving on the commission.
The commission members would be selected by a bipartisan screening panel of two Democratic and two Republican retired judges.
The new poll shows 56.5% of likely voters support Issue 1, down from 60% in September. Ninety percent of Democrats support the issue, while only 30% plan to vote for it.
“The partisan split on Issue 1 is striking. Proponents of the measure no doubt hope that Democrats will turn out in high numbers and a majority of independents will break in favor,” Melissa Miller, political science professor at BGSU, said.
The web-based poll conducted Oct 10-21 sampled 1,000 likely voters in Ohio. The poll has a margin of error of +/-3.6 percentage points. For the questions on Issue 1, the sample was split 500 and 500. Those questions have a margin of error of +/-5.14%
