Donald Trump appears to have made the switch to being more presidential during his campaigning, which has put him into a virtual tie with Hillary Clinton in the polls. With only 65 days left until Election Day, the Daily Mail is reporting that the latest poll from Reuters/Ipsos shows Trump has 40 percent of the vote while Clinton has 39 percent.
One of the main factors of Trump pulling even with Clinton has to do with increased support from members of the Republican Party. In the past two weeks, Donald Trump gained six points from Republican voters, which now shows he has 78 percent of the vote from Republicans polled. As Trump’s numbers grew, Hillary Clinton’s numbers have been dropping over the last couple of weeks.
POLL ALERT: Trump Takes Lead in Rasmussen #HillaryClinton #DonaldTrump #WhiteHouse https://t.co/DFfDcHqcmk pic.twitter.com/TOWjg0FBVO
— Trending Polls (@Pollizer) September 3, 2016
Trump’s support within the Republican Party is still shy of where Mitt Romney was at this time in 2012. At this point in the election cycle, Romney had secured the support of 85 percent of voters in the Republican Party.
What has changed that allowed Trump to make up a large amount of ground in the polls against Clinton? One of the main factors is that Clinton’s email scandal is not going away. It was recently announced that the FBI found more emails from Clinton’s private server from when she was Secretary of State. Clinton has maintained that she turned over all of her emails and yet more are being discovered. The fact Clinton has been so adamant that she turned over everything has led to the other problem facing Clinton and her drop in the polls which is her health.
Many political experts and doctors have stated that they believe Clinton has some major health issues that need to be known in order to let voters decide if she is healthy enough to be President of the United States. Donald Trump and other Republican leaders are calling for Clinton to release her health records. Clinton has stated she has no intention of doing so.
While Clinton’s email and health problems are dragging her numbers down, Trump is acting more presidential than he ever has during his campaign. Trump’s polling rise began right around the same time that he visited the flood ravaged state of Louisiana. Trump visited the damage, donated much-needed supplies, and helped unload the supplies to the people in need. While Trump was in Louisiana, Clinton was at Martha’s Vineyard with President Obama.
Trump continued his presidential behavior when he went south of the border to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto. President Nieto extended the invitation to meet with him to Trump and Clinton. Clinton refused the invitation.
Trump has also begun to make headway with African-American voters across the country. Yesterday, Trump spoke to members of the Great Faith Ministries in Detroit. This church group was made up of African-Americans. Trump has recently been campaigning to the African-American community by telling them that Democrats have done nothing to help them and that they have nothing to lose by giving Trump a shot at making their lives better. His speech yesterday was well received by all in attendance.
With just over two months left in the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump and Clinton will be focusing on key battleground states across the country. The biggest prize in the battleground state race is Florida. The latest poll in Florida shows Trump ahead of Clinton by three percentage points.
New polls – join the MOVEMENT today. https://t.co/3KWOl20zMm #ImWithYou pic.twitter.com/numII7W99T
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2016
What do you think will happen between now and Election Day? Will Donald Trump continue to increase his polling numbers while Hillary Clinton’s numbers decline?
[Image Via AP Photo/Evan Vucci]