A post-debate poll published Monday afternoon reveals that Ohio Governor John Kasich has jumped over establishment rival Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), with just one day before the New Hampshire Republican Primary.
In explaining his appeal to voters in a Monday town hall, Kasich told a Democratic primary voter:
“We gotta get hope back in the country again. Hillary is too brittle, and Bernie is way out here on the extreme. I’m the right porridge. One of them is too hot, the other is too cold, but I got the right temperature.”
The Gravis Marketing poll seems to indicate that a large swath of voters agree Gov. Kasich has the “right porridge.” He is now in second place in the poll, trailing frontrunner Donald Trump’s 28 percent with 17 percent support among likely voters. He is followed by Rubio with 15 percent, Jeb Bush with 14 percent, and Ted Cruz, who grabbed 11 percent from the likely voters surveyed.
Though Gov. Chris Christie was commended for his strong performance in the ABC News Republican debate on Saturday night, the polling does not indicate that the citizens of New Hampshire have gotten behind the New Jersey Governor. He retains only 6 percent support among likely voters, with Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson trailing, accumulating 5 and 3 percent respectively.
Other polls continue to indicate that the race for second in New Hampshire remains wide open, with Rubio, Cruz, Kasich, and Bush consistently polling in the double-digits in The Granite State.
Gov. Kasich has indicated that he would go “home to Ohio” if he finished poorly in New Hampshire.
“If I get smoked here I’m going home to Ohio…but I really want to go on, and it’s going to depend on this state how I do,” he told supporters in New Hampshire last week. “Our campaign will take a look at how we do on the 10th of February and then we’ll make a decision. We expect to finish high. I’ve said all along, if we get smoked up there, you know, I’m going back to Ohio. We don’t think that’s going to happen.”