Ohio, the nation’s premier bellwether presidential state, is too close to call.
A new Monmouth University poll released Wednesday found Hillary Clinton with a 2 point lead over Donald Trump, down from 4 in mid-August.
Clinton’s now up 44-42 percent, with 5 percent supporting Libertarian Gary Johnson and 1 percent for the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
Ohio has voted for the presidential winner in every election since 1964.
Clinton is faltering a bit where President Barack Obama was strong. Among black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters, she’s up 73-15, while Obama got 84 percent in 2012. Trump, though, is not getting the support from whites that the GOP’s Mitt Romney won four years ago.
Trump is up 48-39 percent with whites, while Romney was up 57-41.
Obama could help Trump. “You can draw a direct line between Clinton’s relative weakness with the Democratic base and President Obama’s scheduled campaign stop in Cleveland next week,” said Patrick Murray, director of the nonpartisan Monmouth University Polling Institute, in a press release.
One of the voters’ problems is they don’t like either major candidate. Clinton was viewed favorably by 35 percent of voters, while 55 percent saw her unfavorably. Trump was seen favorably by 30 percent and unfavorably by 57 percent.
David Lightman: 202-383-6101, @lightmandavid