Hillary Clinton Way Ahead Of Every GOP Candidate In Battleground State Of Ohio

Quinnipiac University released a new poll on Thursday showing that former Secretary of State, and presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee in 2016, Hillary Clinton holds double-digit leads on nearly every potential GOP candidate. The only candidate that comes within 10 points of Clinton is Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) who trails the former First Lady by 9 points.

As for the other GOP candidates, embattled New Jersey Governor Chris Christie trails Clinton by 13 points, 49-36. This is a far cry from Quinnipiac’s poll in late November, where it showed a dead heat between the two. Obviously, like in much of the country, Christie’s star hasn’t just faded, it’s burned out. However, the other potential GOP candidates don’t fare much better than Christie. While Ryan ‘only’ trails by 9 points, everyone else is far behind.

Especially embarrassing for the GOP is that Ohio’s current Governor, John Kasich, trails Clinton by 12 points in a hypothetical matchup. While it is highly doubtful that Kasich will toss his hat in the ring, it does show that the GOP can’t even get a ‘home-court’ advantage by using a sitting governor in what is supposed to be a swing state. In fact, Kasich is upside down in the poll on whether he’d make a good president, with only 34% saying he would against 47% saying he would not. Meanwhile, Clinton is well into a net positive, with 55% saying she’d do well at the job and only 39% saying she would be bad at it.

The Tea Party candidates fare very poorly against Clinton in Ohio. Senators Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz all trail by at least 13 points, with Cruz bringing up the rear. Against all three of those candidates, Clinton has at least 50% of the voters favoring her. One potential GOP candidate that is supposed to appeal to moderates, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, trails Clinton by a formidable 15 points, 51-36. It appears that Ohio voters are ready for another Clinton, but not another Bush.

Of course, 2016 is FAR away. But, usually around this time, you’d at least see a couple of potentially strong candidates emerging that a party can rally around and build up. In this case, nobody looks like a good candidate for the Republican Party. Unless the GOP can find some way to hammer away at Clinton or make some fake scandal stick, they are in for another huge disappointment in 2016.

Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).