Early Ohio exit poll: Most GOP primary voters say it’s important next senator support Trump

Most of Ohio’s GOP primary electorate says it’s important that their next US senator show support for Donald Trump, according to the initial results of CNN’s exit poll for the state’s Republican presidential and Senate primaries.

Most of Ohio’s GOP primary electorate says it’s important that their next US senator show support for Donald Trump, according to the initial results of CNN’s exit poll for the state’s Republican presidential and Senate primaries. Roughly 7 in 10 say it’s at least somewhat important that the next senator support the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, with more than half saying it’s very important. Nearly 8 in 10 say they approve of Trump’s job performance when he was in the White House, with about two-thirds saying they expect that, if he returns to the Oval Office, a second Trump term would be better than his first. About two-thirds say they’d consider Trump fit for office even if he’s convicted of a crime. And only about one-third acknowledge that President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election was legitimate. Those results echo entrance and exit polls in Republican presidential contests earlier this year in highlighting the extent to which the GOP electorate has molded itself around the former president’s influence. Tuesday’s primary is this year’s first test of Trump’s endorsement power in a contested Senate race. The winner of the GOP nod will take on Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in a race that could shape the balance of power in the Senate. The three-term incumbent is one of two Democrats running for reelection in a state that Trump twice carried. Roughly 8 in 10 voters supporting businessman Bernie Moreno – Trump’s preferred candidate in the Senate primary – say that it’s very important that Ohio’s next senator back Trump. By contrast, loyalty to Trump is similarly important to only about half of those supporting Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and fewer than one-third of those backing state Sen. Matt Dolan. Exit polls are a valuable tool to help understand primary voters’ demographic profile and political views. Like all surveys, however, exit polls are estimates, not precise measurements of the electorate. That’s particularly true for the preliminary set of exit poll numbers, which haven’t yet been weighted to match the final results of the primary. But the results provide a glimpse of the types of voters turning out.