A majority of voters in the key swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania support both medical and recreational marijuana use, according to
poll results from Quinnipiac University.
Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly back medical marijuana at a margin of 88 percent to 10 percent. Florida and Ohio were close behind with 84 percent to 14 percent and 84 percent to 15 percent, respectively.
Recreational marijuana also has a majority support, though it wasn’t as far ranging as for medical purposes.
"Bare majorities" — 55 percent of Floridians, 51 percent of Pennsylvanians and 52 percent of Ohioans — told pollsters that they favor allowing adults to legally possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use. Opposition to recreational marijuana ranged from 42 percent to 45 percent in the three swing states.
Despite the majority support in the poll, Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll, said it’s "worth considering the lesson of Florida in 2014, when a referendum on medical marijuana fell short of the 60 percent needed for passage."
At the ballot box in November,
Sunshine State voters approved medical marijuana by a majority, but fell short of the required 60 percent needed for passage
Despite swing state voters' support for pot, a sweeping majority said they "definitely" or "probably" would not use it themselves.
In Ohio, 84 percent of voters said they "definitely" or "probably" would not use it, followed by 83 percent in Pennsylvania, and 81 percent in Florida.
The Swing State Poll also looked at Senate races.
If Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, runs for the White House in 2016, as expected, his Senate seat will be a battle of "unknown candidates on both sides of the aisle," according to Quinnipiac’s Brown.
"Florida's Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater has a small edge in exposure to the voters, but we have a long way to go. Whoever wins will be the candidate who does the best job introducing themselves to the voters."
Atwater, who is a member of the GOP, gets 38 percent to Democrat U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy’s 34 percent. Atwater also leads Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson by a margin of 42 percent to 32 percent.
Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera trails Murphy (35-to-31), and is neck-and-neck with Grayson, with Lopez-Cantera having a slight edge (33-to-32).
In the Buckeye State, former Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, is leading Republican incumbent Sen. Rob Portman by 48 percent to 39 percent in the 2016 Senate race.
Independent voters back the Democrat 50 percent to 32 percent.
According to Brown, Portman, who is a first-term senator, is not well-known to voters.
"Only slightly more than half of voters say they know enough to have an opinion of him," Brown said. "Strickland, who has been out of office since 2010, is very well-known. Three quarters have an opinion and it is favorable by 20 percentage points."
And in the Keystone State, 2016 could see a rematch of 2010, pitting Republican Sen Pat Toomey against Democrat Joe Sestak, a former U.S. representative and three-star Navy admiral.
Toomey leads Sestak 48 percent to 35 percent, according to the poll results.
"It's an uphill fight for Joe Sestak who has to chip away at U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey's approval numbers while trying to win over Pennsylvanians who just don't know enough about him," according to Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll.
Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are critical in elections. Since 1960, no candidate has won the presidential race without taking at least two of these three swing states.
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