Carl Weiser

cweiser@enquirer.com

Ohioans - especially Ohio Republicans - want Gov. John Kasich to drop out of the presidential race, a new poll out today shows.

Nearly half - 49 percent - of Ohio voters say it's time for Kasich to drop out of the race for the Republican nomination, compared to only 38 percent who want him to stay in.

Among Republican voters, 58 percent want him to drop out.

Kasich pondered dropping out Wednesday

The poll is from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling, but the same firm found a month ago that 52 percent of Ohioans wanted Kasich to stay in the race.

Since winning Ohio's primary March 15, Kasich has endured a string of losses. Long mathematically eliminated from winning on the first ballot, he says he is hoping to win at a contested convention.

“Ohio voters were pretty supportive of John Kasich’s presidential ambitions for a while,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But now they’re ready for him to wrap it up as his prospects grow smaller and the bill for taxpayers related to his campaign gets larger and larger.”

The poll found only 31 percent of Ohio voters think Kasich is paying enough attention to his gubernatorial duties.

The poll of 799 registered voters was conducted April 26th and 27th using phones and the internet. The margin of error is +/-3.2 percentage points.