CLEVELAND, Ohio – A new poll from Emerson College shows potentially troubling signs for Republican President Donald Trump in Ohio.

Trump, who won the state by 8 percentage points in 2016, has a net negative job approval rating. Three of the top Democratic candidates narrowly beat him in a theoretical head-to-head matchup, although the results are within the margin of error. And a plurality of respondents to the poll said they supported impeaching the president.

The poll was conducted by Emerson College in Massachusetts using robocalls and an online panel from Sept. 29 through Oct. 2. The sample of 837 Ohio registered voters has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.3% and is weighted by various factors from the 2016 election, including gender, age, education and ethnicity.

Trump under water

Fifty-one percent of the surveyed voters said they disapproved of Trump’s job performance. Only 42.6% said they approved.

As in other surveys, Trump’s poor job performance numbers were driven by women and minority voters, though white and male voters also held a net-negative approval rating of the president.

The survey results also indicated the antipathy didn’t spread to GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, who had a net 3.3% negative job approval rating – within the margin of error.

Impeachment

Ohioans were essentially split on whether to impeach Trump. The survey did not ask for a reason, but the recent controversy over Trump asking Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat running for president, has led to Democrats in Congress announcing they’ll open an impeachment inquiry.

Of those polled by Emerson, 42.7% said they supported impeaching the president while 39.3% said they opposed.

The Democratic primary

Of the subset of Democrats in the poll, there was a three-way race for the Democratic primary.

Biden narrowly led the field with 29.2%, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont at 26.6% and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts at 20.6%.

Sen. Kamala Harris of California at 6.6%, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 5% and businessman Andrew Yang at 3.3% rounded out the rest of the top of the field.

Rep. Tim Ryan, a Youngstown-area Democrat running for president, polled at 0.4%. Ryan was not on the Democratic debate stage in September and won’t be included in the October debate hosted in his home state.

Trump vs. the Democrats

While only a single poll, the Trump’s head-to-head matchups against the Democrats produced some foreboding signs. Others have shown similar trends.

Sanders topped Trump 53.1% to 46.9%. Biden bested Trump 52.6% to 47.4%. And Warren narrowly won 51.6% to 48.4%.

Results from an Emerson College poll of Ohio voters showing Republican President Donald Trump narrowly trailing Democrats Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

Now, this doesn’t mean Trump is doomed in the state. All of the matchups were within the margin of error, making them statistically a tie. Voters were also only given the option to pick one of the two candidates in the head-to-head question, discounting the possibility of third-party candidates or those who wouldn’t vote.

But the fact the president’s approval rating has tanked downward since he took office in 2017 and the possibility that Ohioans are even open to the idea of impeachment isn’t a great sign for the president. Sanders and especially Warren are mocked among Republicans in the state as too liberal to possibly beat Trump.

If the Emerson College results are indicative of the political climate in Ohio, the president should be worried.

View the full poll here