A new Ohio Senate poll Republican incumbent Senator Rob Portman has a 13-point lead over Democrat and former Governor Ted Strickland.
The Quinnipiac University Poll was taken last week, before their debate at 10TV Monday night.
10TV has a fact-check on the claims made by both men in the push to Election Day.
Senator Rob Portman called himself an independent voice for Ohio.
Former Governor Ted Strickland billed himself as a fighter for the working class.
Then the political opponents turned their sites on each other.
Strickland challenged Portman on his record on women.
"This Senator has attempted to overturn Roe v Wade,” Strickland said. “That's what he wants to do. He wants to take away a woman's right to choose, to control her own health care decisions. He's voted to de-fund Planned Parenthood."
Portman is staunchly pro-life, earning a 100 percent voting record from National Right to Life.
Portman pointed to his work in the fight against the addiction epidemic in Ohio.
"My legislation, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act is making a difference already," Portman said.
"And I congratulate him for that,” Strickland countered. “But he actually voted against the funding for his own bill. He let someone else carry the water because he didn't have the courage to cast the vote."
Portman did vote against a $1.1 trillion spending bill that included funding for the bill.
He called the overall bill wasteful.
But he has helped secure $37 million in short-term spending for it.
Portman blasted Strickland's record as Ohio Governor.
"As Governor, the loss of 350,000 jobs, taking Ohio to 48th in the country. 47 other governors figured it out better than he did,” Portman charged. “And by the way, after those 350,000 jobs left Ohio, he left Ohio. He went to Washington, DC to cash in as a lobbyist."
Politifact Ohio comes to Strickland's defense, pointing out he “became governor at the apex of the nation's 2008 recession."
The site says it's "half-true that Strickland alone should be faulted for 350,000 jobs lost. That was the result of forces outside his control."
The Associated Press clarified that Strickland "oversaw the lobbying arm of the Center for American Progress, but was not himself a lobbyist."
For more fact-checking on the issues in the Ohio Senate race: http://www.politifact.com/ohio/article/2016/oct/13/politifact-ohio-previews-first-ohio-senate-debate/