Polling

Public Policy Polling released a new West Virginia poll yesterday. Here are some results and commentary from PPP:

Republican presidential

PPP's new West Virginia poll finds it's likely to just keep Donald Trump's recent streak of dominant victories right on going. Trump leads in the state with 61% to 22% for Ted Cruz and 14% for John Kasich. . . . Trump is winning every subgroup of the Republican electorate, but a few things stand out. He's getting 70% among the independents planning to vote in the GOP primary, to 20% for Cruz and just 9% for Kasich.

Democratic presidential

On the Democratic side Bernie Sanders is leading with 45% to 37% for Hillary Clinton. The 18% of voters who are undecided is unusually high and speaks to the number of registered Democrats in West Virginia who don't really identify with the national party at this point.

November matchups

General election match ups for President in West Virginia are mostly not competitive. As bad as Trump's favorability numbers are nationally, in West Virginia he comes out narrowly on positive ground at 47/45 and he leads Clinton 57/30 and Sanders 56/35 in head to heads.

Governor's race

Jim Justice is the early favorite in the Governor's race, both for the Democratic primary and the general election. 37% of primary voters support Justice to 23% for Booth Goodwin and 19% for Jeff Kessler, with 21% of voters still undecided a week out from the election. Justice also leads Bill Cole 41-35 for the general election, making him the only one of the Democratic hopefuls who would start out with an advantage for the general. Goodwin trails Cole 39/33 at this point, and Kessler has a 40/30 deficit at this stage.

Additionally, Ohio voters to Kasich: get out

PPP's newest Ohio poll finds voters in the state are getting sick of John Kasich's Presidential campaign. Only 38% think he should stay in the race, compared to 49% who think it's time for him to drop out. Those numbers have shifted substantially from early March when 52% of voters wanted him to continue on in the race and just 34% thought he should drop out. And the numbers for Kasich when it comes to dropping out are actually even worse for him with Republicans than they are with Democrats- 58% of GOP voters in Ohio think it's time for him to let it go, compared to only 33% who think he should stay in.

Endorsements

Throwing caution to the wind, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Cole endorsed Donald Trump yesterday according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail:

“Next Tuesday I will cast my ballot for Donald Trump for president,” Cole said in a prepared statement. “I look forward to working with him in making sure that West Virginia is on the winning end of his efforts to make America great again.”

Democratic candidate for governor Kessler has previously endorsed Bernie Sanders while his Democratic opponents, Jim Justice and Booth Goodwin, have remained uncommitted. Senator Manchin has endorsed Hilary Clinton while Senator Capito has not committed to any candidate.