WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (KUNA) — While officials in the Barack Obama campaign sound increasingly confident that he will win the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination, a new poll finds that Hillary Clinton has double-digit leads over Obama in the crucial upcoming primary states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
New York Senator Clinton has lost eight straight nominating contests to Illinois Senator Obama, but she leads him 55 percent to 34 percent among likely Democratic primary voters in Ohio, according to the Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday.
Among Ohio Democrats, women prefer Clinton to Obama by a margin of 56 percent to 30 percent, while men back Clinton 52 percent to 42 percent, the poll found.
White Democrats in Ohio favor Clinton 64 percent to 28 percent, while Obama leads 64 to 17 percent among black voters in Ohio, the survey found.
The Ohio primary takes place on March 4, along with Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont. Clinton, who was spending the day campaigning in Ohio on Thursday, has expressed confidence that she will stop Obama’s momentum by winning the Democratic primaries in the populous states of Ohio and Texas. Those two states are the largest remaining prizes in the battle for delegates needed to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.
Ohio is a good demographic fit for Clinton, according to Peter Brown, a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute official, because it has large numbers of blue-collar workers, and a smaller percentage of Democrats with college educations and African-Americans, than in many other states where Obama has won caucuses and primaries.
In Pennsylvania, which holds its primary on April 22, Clinton leads Obama 52 percent to 36 percent among likely Democratic voters, the Quinnipiac poll found.
The poll was taken Feb. 6 through 12.