Hillary Clinton Leads In Polls: Donald Trump’s Taxes Cause Republican Candidate To Take A Hit Post-Debate
Hillary Clinton has once again picked up a major lead over Donald Trump in national polling ahead of November’s presidential election. Early last month, Clinton was trailing her Republican rival Donald Trump by a point. However, a similar poll conducted in early October gives Clinton a five-point lead over Trump. Clinton’s recent bump in polling has been largely attributed to her performance in the first presidential debate and recent questions surrounding the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s taxes.
According to CNN, their most recent polling places Hillary Clinton at 47 percent amongst likely voters, whilst Donald Trump trails by five points at 42 percent. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is at seven percent, with Green party candidate Jill Stein’s support starting to flag at two percent. In all, the polling provides promising news for Hillary Clinton.
So how has Hillary Clinton managed to pick up a five point lead over Donald Trump? Analysts believe Trump is hemorrhaging support from men. The Republican candidate once held a 22-point lead with the group in early September, which has now been reduced to only five points. At the same time, Clinton appears to be attracting independent voters at a much faster rate than Trump. That’s in contrast to Donald Trump, who held the support of most independents in early September, with most now switching their support to Clinton.
Post-debate polls show @HillaryClinton ahead in 7 of 11 battlegrounds https://t.co/sNK4SQuTff | AP pic.twitter.com/wnTlOs245p
— POLITICO (@politico) October 4, 2016
Perhaps most surprisingly, however, Clinton appears to be picking up support from white voters without college degrees, a demographic that once provided support for Donald Trump. Whilst Clinton still trails Donald Trump by 22 points in that group, that’s a significant improvement on the 44 points between them just last month. The fact that Clinton is closing in on their key demographics is sure to be worrying news for the Trump campaign, who continue to rely on white working class voters.
That said, when it comes to presidential elections, national polls aren’t given all that much sway. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will need to secure key victories in a number swing states if they want to win the presidency. Now, according to the Independent, Clinton is gaining a lead in many of those states.
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As you might expect, there’s one key issue that’s causing Donald Trump to stagnate in the polls right now. Whilst most respondents to this survey answered before Sunday’s revelation that Donald Trump may have avoided income tax for nearly two decades, there’s still a general consensus that Donald Trump should release his tax returns. In fact, up to 47 percent of Trump’s own supporters believe that the Republican candidate should release his tax returns.
The Clinton campaign will now be waiting with bated breath to see how recent revelations about Donald Trump’s taxes affect him in further polling. Nearly 90 percent of voters believe that it’s every citizen’s duty to fairly pay taxes, which could spell big trouble for Donald Trump if he doesn’t make his tax returns public.
New polls find Hillary Clinton leading in Colorado and Virginia https://t.co/m21siMHwF1 via @adrienneshih pic.twitter.com/rWUsZchZHf
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 4, 2016
What’s more, throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, enthusiasm about voting has largely been believed to be on the side of Republican candidate Donald Trump, with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton struggling to get voters excited about the prospect of her presidency. However, that now appears to be changing. Fifty percent of Clinton’s supporters are now either extremely or very enthusiastic, compared to 46 percent on the month before. Whilst enthusiasm in the Trump camp has fallen from 58 percent to 56 percent for the first time during the campaign.
[Featured Image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
