Santorum retains lead in most recent Ohio polls

Lindsy Neer

Rick Santorum continues to lead Mitt Romney in Ohio, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released Monday morning.

Santorum’s strongest supporters are men and conservatives, the survey found. Leading by seven points, 36 percent of likely Republican voters said they favor the former Pennsylvania senator. Romney followed with 29 percent. All results are unchanged from another Quinnipiac survey two weeks ago.

Although 45 percent of voters polled for the survey said they might change their minds, 57 percent of Santorum supporters said their minds were made up.

The only areas where Romney topped Santorum were among “self-identified moderates,” where he beat Santorum 39 percent to 27 percent; women were split, favoring Santorum by only 1 percent.

“While almost half the voters say they might change their mind, Santorum supporters seem a little surer of their vote,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in the survey. “What happens in Michigan tomorrow night might have an impact on voters in Ohio’s Republican primary.”

While the majority of those polled favored Santorum over Romney, when it came to deciding which Republican candidate is the strongest to run against President Barack Obama, 40 percent chose Romney, while only 25 percent chose Santorum.

The survey was conducted from Feb. 23-26, with 847 likely Ohio Republican primary voters participating. The margin of error was +/- 3.4 percentage points.

Ohio’s primary will take place March 6, as one of the seven states holding a primary that day.

Contact Lindsy Neer at [email protected].