Hillary Clinton Vs. Donald Trump Polls: With Another Poll Showing Clinton’s Lead Now In The Single Digits, Trump Continues To Close The Gap
Presumptive Republican nominee for United States president Donald Trump continues to narrow the gap against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, according to a USA Today/Suffolk Poll that was released on Monday by USA Today. The poll, which was conducted from June 26–29 and included 1,000 likely voters, had a measure of accuracy of three percentage points. All of the participants were contacted on their landline or cell phone.
“Clinton now leads Trump by five percentage points, 45.6% to 40.4% (Rounding would make the lead six points.) That’s closer than two months ago, when she led in the USA TODAY survey by double digits, 50%-39%. Since the poll last spring, both candidates have consolidated their claims to their parties’ nominations but neither has seen a significant bump in his or her standing. Indeed, Clinton’s support has dropped by almost five points.”
Depending on how you decide to round it, Clinton is leading Trump by five or six percentage points. The actual figure of 5.2 percentage points shows that Clinton may not dominate November’s election as many had originally thought. While Clinton had enjoyed a fairly comfortable double-digit lead in various polls over the past few weeks, it appears as though her support is starting to sputter. Still the leader, Clinton’s recent email controversy has made certain voters weary of her decision-making abilities.
As reported by theNew York Times, FBI director James B. Comey said today that Clinton would not face criminal charges for her handling of the emails. While Clinton was extremely careless in using her personal email to handle classified information, there was no evidence that she violated any laws. Regardless of the FBI deciding to not recommend charges against Clinton, the damage may have already been done in the eyes of voters. Her poor judgment is a concern for someone who is in the running to be the next president of the United States, and it appears as though it is being reflected in the latest polls.
As reported by the Inquisitr, another recent poll by Reuters/Ipsos shows that Clinton’s support among potential voters is diminishing. The poll, which was conducted from June 27–July 1 and included 1,080 registered voters, had Clinton leading Trump 43.9 percent to 34.5 percent. While the 9.4-point lead for Clinton in the Reuters/Ipsos poll is almost double the lead that she is enjoying in the USA Today/Suffolk poll, it still has been falling over the past few weeks.
In a Reuters/Ipsos poll that was taken June 20–24, Clinton led Trump by 13.3 points. In another Reuters/Ispos poll that was taken June 23–28, Clinton’s lead was down to 11.2 points. With the latest poll showing a lead of only 9.4 points, Trump could be gaining support among more voters.
While Trump is still adamant on building the wall and temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States, he has slightly backed off of his claims for the latter. Even though Trump still wants to prevent Muslims from countries with a history of terrorism to enter the United States, he has stated that he would not have a problem with Muslims entering from peaceful countries. This is still an extreme view to many people, but Trump could attempt to appear less extreme with his views in the coming months in order to capture undecided voters.
New poll from @USAToday:
• Hillary: 39%
• Trump: 35%
• Gary Johnson: 8%
• Jill Stein: 3%https://t.co/IgCYnl9vkQ pic.twitter.com/BmFQ7i0l4K— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) July 5, 2016
The USA Today/Suffolk poll also showed that many voters are alarmed about the upcoming election and are only voting for Trump because he is running against Clinton.
“Clinton commands more positive allegiance than Trump. By more than 3-1, 74% to 22%, Clinton supporters say they are mostly voting for her, not against him. Trump’s backers are more evenly divided on their motivation: 48% are mostly voting for him; 39% are mostly voting against her. Still, Trump supporters are a bit more likely to say they’re “excited” about the election, 27% compared with 24%. Clinton supporters are a bit more likely to say they’re “alarmed,” 62% to 56%.”
With over 50 percent of likely voters alarmed about the election, it appears as though the majority of people are not overly comfortable with either candidate. Even with 74 percent of Clinton supporters claiming that they are voting for her and not against Trump, 62 percent of them are alarmed about the upcoming election.
A lot is going to change over the next few months regarding the public opinion of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. While Clinton is currently in the lead in the latest polls, Trump has been gaining support and closing the gap over the past week.
[Photo by Marc Piscotty/Getty Images]
