OH-Gov: New poll shows Republican DeWine has gained ground, now tied with Cordray

Ohio Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine has pulled into a tie with Democratic candidate and former Obama administration official Richard Cordray, according to a new poll.

DeWine, who trailed Cordray by one point in June, is now tied at 47 percent with Cordray in the latest NBC News/Marist College poll. Six percent of Ohio voters are still undecided.

The poll comes the same day that DeWine received some more good news, an official endorsement of his campaign by the National Rifle Association.

"Mike DeWine and Jon Husted support our right to keep and bear arms," said Chris W. Cox, chairman of the NRA's Political Victory Fund. "Ohioans can trust Mike DeWine and Jon Husted to protect their constitutional right to self-defense. The six million members of the National Rifle Association thank Mike DeWine and Jon Husted for their commitment to protecting the Second Amendment. In November, we encourage all freedom-loving Ohioans to vote for DeWine and Husted."

DeWine has said he intends to honor Ohio's standing as a "centrist" state, if he is elected governor, and that he will use the office to work toward what is best for Ohioans, even if it means pushing back against his own party or the president some.

“I will pull people together when I am governor of this state, no doubt about it," DeWine told the Columbus Dispatch on Friday. "Most of the issues we face should not be partisan issues — education should not be partisan, the drug problem should not be partisan. Ohio is a centrist state ... even in this toxic atmosphere we have in politics today, I still believe I can pull people together."

Cordray, however, is running on a platform that the state needs a Democratic governor to balance out what he called a "backward thinking" Republican state Legislature.

The candidates will face off in their second debate on Oct. 1 at Marietta College.