COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Half of Ohio voters in a new poll would vote for Donald Trump over President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

The poll of 1,000 registered voters, conducted by Emerson College and released Thursday, suggests support for Trump in Ohio remains strong – but perhaps not as strong as in 2020. It also showed that economic concerns weigh heavily on the minds of Ohioans, as well as threats to democracy.

Nexstar Media, which owns NBC4, sponsored the poll. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Among those polled, 31.2% were Democrats, 38.9% were Republicans and 29.9% were independent voters.

Less than a third of Ohioans in the poll favorably view Biden’s performance as president, compared to about 41% who approve of Gov. Mike DeWine. A flat 50% said they would vote for Trump over Biden if given only the two choices, while 38.3% would vote for Biden and 11.7% are undecided. 

Trump, who faces multiple criminal charges across several jurisdictions and is on trial for fraud in New York, won Ohio in 2020 with 53.3% of the vote. Against a slate of hypothetical candidates, including Biden, Robert Kennedy, Jill Stein and Cornel West, Trump won just under 45% of votes in the poll, compared with 31.3% for Biden. About a third of voters said they could change their mind before the election.

Of those who would vote for Trump, more than 80% said they would vote for him if he is convicted of a crime, compared with 7.4% who said they would not.

Voters heavily favored Trump over any other Republican vying for the GOP nomination, with more than 61% support. The second choice for those planning to vote in the Republican primary was former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Upper Arlington’s own Vivek Ramaswamy, a harsh critic of Trump who has advocated for dismantling the IRS and pardoning those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, got 6.2% support.

More than 41% of Ohioans said the most important issue facing Ohio is the economy, including jobs, inflation and taxes. Nearly 10% said “threats to democracy” was their primary concern, 8.1% said abortion, another 8.1% said healthcare, 7.9% said crime and 7.7% said housing affordability. Immigration was picked the least, at 6.7%.