trump clinton

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton continue to duke it out in Ohio.

(Left: Gerald Herbert, Associated Press, Photo; Right: Carolyn Kaster, Associated Press)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio remains a battleground for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, according to two new polls.

One poll, conducted by Marist College and sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, showed Trump, a Republican, beating Clinton, a Democrat, 42 percent to 41 percent. The other, conducted by Emerson College, showed Clinton leading Trump 45 percent to 43 percent.

When the polls were narrowed to exclude third-party candidates, Clinton and Trump were tied at 45 percent in the Marist poll, while Clinton maintained her the same 2-point lead in the Emerson poll.

Each candidate's respective lead is well within each poll's margin of sampling error, making both an effective toss-up. However, an average of recent polls show Clinton holding a small, but consistent lead in Ohio. Trump had held his own Ohio polling lead for much of September, but that advantage has vanished as the election has neared.

The two new polls both were conducted from Oct. 10-12, the days following Sunday's presidential debate, as well as a damaging sequence of events for Trump that began with the release of a 2005 tape showing him making lewd and sexually aggressive comments against women, and ended with a significant number of Republican elected officials dropping their support.

The results of the two new surveys differ dramatically from those of another previously released poll that was conducted during the same time. That poll, performed by Baldwin Wallace University and released Wednesday, showed Clinton leading Trump 43 percent to 34 percent.

The Marist and Emerson polls were conducted using phone calls -- Marist using live interviewers, with Emerson using pre-recorded questions -- while the Baldwin Wallace survey was conducted online using randomly selected, self-identified likely voters.

The Marist poll surveyed 724 likely voters with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. The Emerson poll surveyed 600 likely voters with a sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

Both polls showed U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, holding a commanding lead over his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Ted Strickland.

The Marist poll showed Portman leading Strickland by 18 points, 55 percent to 37 percent, while the Emerson poll showed Portman leading 47 percent to 30 percent.

Another new Marist poll of likely voters in North Carolina, another key battleground state, showed Clinton leading Trump there 45 percent to 41 percent. Emerson also released a poll showing Clinton with a narrow lead in North Carolina, as well as in Virginia.