According to the poll, Sen. Sherrod Brown has a nearly 2-to-1 lead among independents. | Win McNamee/Getty Images POLITICO/AARP poll: Brown leads Renacci in Ohio Senate race

Sen. Sherrod Brown has a significant lead over his Republican challenger, Rep. Jim Renacci, according to a new POLITICO/AARP poll in Ohio that also shows a neck-and-neck contest for governor.

In the Senate contest, the poll shows Brown leading Renacci 47 percent to 31 percent, with 22 percent undecided.


Brown, a Democrat serving his second term, is winning among Democrats, 85 percent to 2 percent. Among Republicans, Renacci leads, 71 percent to 13 percent.

Brown also has a nearly 2-to-1 lead among independents — 38 percent to Renacci’s 20 percent — though 42 percent of independents are undecided.

Among voters 50 and older, Brown holds a similar lead over Renacci, 49 percent to 33 percent, with 18 percent undecided.

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The poll is part of POLITICO/AARP’s series “The Deciders.” More results from the survey will be released next week.

Renacci, in his fourth term as a member of the House of Representatives, initially launched a campaign for governor last year. But he abandoned that bid when state Treasurer Josh Mandel suspended his Senate campaign to tend to a family health issue; Renacci switched from a struggling gubernatorial campaign to become the leading GOP candidate for Senate.

In the governor’s race, the state’s Republican attorney general, Mike DeWine, has a negligible lead of 1 point over Democrat Richard Cordray, 39 percent to 38 percent, with 23 percent undecided.

Among voters 50 and older, DeWine, a former senator whom Brown ousted in 2006, leads Cordray, 44 percent to 38 percent, with 19 percent undecided.

The poll was conducted Sept. 2-11 by Morning Consult, which surveyed 1,592 registered voters in Ohio, including 841 voters ages 50 and older. The margin of error for the overall sample is plus or minus 2 percentage points, while the 50-and-older results carry a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: https://politi.co/2x4xILj | Crosstabs: https://politi.co/2NypIfW

