Two Public Polling Policy polls of voters in Ohio and Missouri show Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich leading rivals Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul in the two mid-western states.
In Missouri, Mr. Gingrich is not on the primary ballot. Mr. Santorum finished with 45 percent of the votes among Missouri voters, with Mr. Romney trailing at 34 percent and Mr. Paul finishing third at 13 percent.
Mr. Gingrich leads the way in Ohio, finishing with 26 percent of the votes, followed by Mr. Romney at 25 percent, Mr. Santorum with 22 percent and 11 percent for Mr. Paul.
Mr. Santorum has already begun campaigning in the Missouri and Colorado, as Missouri holds its primary election next Tuesday and Colorado holds its caucus voting the same day. The former Pennyslvania senator left the campaign trail in Florida over the weekend, to be with his daughter Bella, who was recently hospitalized with pneumonia.
Mr. Paul has also been absent from Florida, as he is choosing to focus on trying to win delegates in states with upcoming primary elections. Thus far Mr. Romney leads in terms of the number of delegates he has gained, with 33. Mr. Gingrich is in second with 25, followed by Mr. Santorum at 14 and Mr. Paul at 4.
In addition to leading in popularity, Mr. Santorum also has the highest favorability rating in Missouri and Ohio.
According to the poll, 63 percent of voters in Missouri have a favorable view of Mr. Santorum while 59 percent of voters polled in Ohio have a favorable view of him.
“One thing that’s important to note in both Ohio and Missouri is that fewer than half of voters are strongly committed to their current choice, meaning that things could shift a lot between now and the time those states actually vote,” writes Tom Jensen, director of PPP. “It may be that once Romney comes into those states his spending advantage just blows the other candidates out of the water the way it has in Florida.”
The Missouri PPP poll was conducted among 574 “usual” Missouri Republican primary voters between January 27th and January 29th, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
The Ohio poll was conducted among 626 “usual” Ohio Republican primary voters from January 28th to January 29th with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
The Missouri Republican primary election is scheduled for Tuesday, February 7th, on the same day as the caucuses occurring in Minnesota and Colorado.
The Ohio Republican primary election will be held on March 6th, also known as Super Tuesday.
