Monmouth University released a new poll Monday reminding Republicans that they might easily be winning the 2016 presidential race if they had nominated a natural-born citizen over the age of 35 who is not Donald Trump.

The new poll shows Hillary Clinton leading Trump by 4 points (43 percent to 39 percent), but "Ohio's electoral votes would not be in question if favorite son Gov. John Kasich nabbed the GOP nomination. A solid 57% majority say they would have backed Kasich for president over 33% who would support Clinton if this had been the match-up."

The pollster further reports: "Unlike other former presidential candidates, Kasich has made a point of keeping his distance from Trump. This has not hurt the governor's reputation among his fellow Buckeyes - 38% say they think more highly of Kasich because he is not supporting Trump and just 17% think less highly of him. Another 44% say Kasich's stand against Trump has had no impact on their opinion of the governor."

Kasich may be an exceptionally popular governor, but the Senate race in Ohio suggests that a generic Republican would be beating Clinton as well. Ohio's Republican incumbent senator Rob Portman is running far ahead of Trump: He leads his Democratic challenger, former governor Ted Strickland, by 8 points. The Monmouth survey is consistent with other recent Ohio polls. In the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Trump trails Clinton by 4.8 points, while Portman leads Strickland by 6.4 points.

One interesting finding in the Monmouth survey is that that source of Trump's trouble is that he's underperforming among white voters compared to Mitt Romney, who lost the state by 2 points in 2012:

Clinton is not doing quite as well as Barack Obama did four years ago among black, Hispanic, and Asian voters (72% to 10% for Trump compared with 84% for Obama to 14% for Mitt Romney in 2012). Likewise, Trump is not doing quite as well with white voters (45% to 37% for Clinton) as Romney did (57% to 41% for Obama).

Although Ohio is usually a critical swing state, the results there won't be decisive if Clinton's firewall holds in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Colorado. August polls show Clinton up by double digits in those states, and it will be nearly impossible for Trump to win a majority of Electoral College votes if Clinton wins Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Colorado.