Donald Trump leads both of his opponents by double digits in a new survey of Oregon Republicans, suggesting that John Kasich has significant ground to make up ahead of the state’s May 17 primary if he wants to strongly challenge the billionaire there.
According to the survey from the Hoffman Research Group, Trump currently draws 43 percent support among GOP voters in the Beaver State. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who vowed not to campaign in the state as part of a deal he made with Kasich, follows at 26 percent, while the Ohio governor is a distant third at 17 percent support.
Kasich’s campaign has already planned a number of campaign stops in both Oregon and New Mexico, states where the governor feels he has the best chance of drawing votes away from Trump.
He and Cruz made news earlier this week for agreeing to campaign in separate states as part of a joint strategy to prevent Trump form reaching the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination.
Interestingly, Trump’s favorability in the same survey is far different in comparison to his national numbers. The poll shows that 49 percent of Oregon Republican view the GOP front-runner favorably, compared to 40 percent who do not.
Cruz has a positive favorability rating of 42 percent, while Kasich is seen positively by 34 percent of Republicans. A quarter of GOP voters said they hold a negative view of the two-term governor, while another 17 percent were unaware of who he is.
The survey of 555 likely Republican primary voters in Oregon was conducted April 26-28. Results contain a margin of error plus or minus 4.2 percent.
