Ohio Primary Polls 2016: Republican And Democratic Results Project Nailbiting Showdowns

The most recent 2016 Ohio primary polls are showing voting results that are likely to come down to just a few percentage points on both the Republican and Democratic side of the race.

Not a single recent poll released leading into the 2016 Ohio primary has a candidate more than 10 percent ahead of his or her closest rival. On the Republican side, that will make the state the most closely watched of Tuesday’s elections.

Moreover, in a winner-take-all system all 66 GOP delegates will go to one of the four men still vying for the nomination — the ninth highest amount of the entire primary. Democrats, sparring over 143 pledged and 17 unpledged delegates, are also expected to drag it out until the last minute as the proportional system could make the 2016 Ohio primary a relative tie if polls inch any further together.

A closer look the at the 2016 Republican Ohio primary polls shows John Kasich, the distant fourth place GOP candidate, either beating out or entering into a dead heat with Donald Trump. As Kasich is the current governor of the state that should, perhaps, be unsurprising, but it’s still notable for a Tuesday of selections that are expected to sew up the conservative race for Donald if he takes the massive 99-delegate win in Florida as expected.

The most recent poll predicting the outcome of the Ohio primary is from Quinnipiac University, which has run numbers on the race for several weeks leading into voting. Kasich and Trump have both locked horns at 38 percent, while Ted Cruz trails behind significantly at 16 percent. Marco Rubio, at 3 percent, has all but been given up for lost in the state. Another poll from CBS News and YouGov, with a slightly larger sample size, gives Ted a fighting chance: He comes in at 27 percent behind a 33-percent tie between the two frontrunners.

Of course, the close race on the Republican side is a bit of a distraction. Even if Kasich obliterates Trump in the 2016 Ohio primary, there is no way he can come back in the overall GOP race. Currently, John has amassed a mere 63 delegates compared to Donald’s 460. Because of that, it’s the Democrat race where polls are truly sparking tension.

Hillary Clinton will go into Tuesday’s Democratic primaries — featuring big states like North Carolina, Illinois, Florida, and Missouri — with a more than 200-delegate advantage over Bernie Sanders. While Hillary leads significantly in Florida and North Carolina polls, the race is tensely close in Missouri, Illinois, and Ohio.

In Ohio, the 2016 Democratic primary polls are showing a slight advantage for Clinton. The Quinnipiac numbers call her taking the race with 51 percent compared to Bernie’s 46 percent. That 5-percent spread is also reflected by recent data from Public Policy Polling, while the CBS/YouGov survey calls an even larger 9-percent step ahead for Hillary. With votes this close, delegates could easily come out relatively evenly.

Aside from the tight polls in the Ohio primary, March 15 has been referred as “the other Super Tuesday” in the media due to the huge amount of delegates up for grabs. On the Republican side, 367 delegates are available — the majority of which are winner-take-all. The Democratic side is a bit more tricky with its divide between delegates and superdelegates. In total, the five states up to bat tomorrow hold 802 delegates, 102 of which are unpledged.

Do you think the recent 2016 Ohio primary polls have already locked in the Republican and Democratic results? Check out a breakdown of Illinois, North Carolina and Florida‘s predictions as well.

[Photo by Darren McCollester, Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]