The race for retiring U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s seat is also still very close, with Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Heck edging out former Democratic Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, according to the poll.
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Republican Donald Trump appears to have carved out a wider path to the White House as a number of states including Florida and OH are no longer considered likely wins for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project released on Saturday.
Trump’s ascendancy in ME is largely due to his dominance in the vast northern sector of the state – but analysts say it’s also a reflection of how ME, like many other parts of the country, has become geographically more polarized.
The businessman’s five-point lead holds up in the four-way race, leading Clinton, 44-39, with Libertarian Gary Johnson behind at 10 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 3 percent.
Clinton holds a four-point lead over Trump in Rasmussen Reports’ latest weekly White House Watch survey.
In Ohio, Clinton faces deeper image challenges than in Florida.
And the candidates share a similar unfavourable rating (60 per cent view Trump unfavourably and 59 per cent have that view of Clinton).
According to the Bloomberg poll, OH voters were very concerned about Clinton’s handling of her emails, her actions during the Benghazi attack, and the fact that the Clinton foundation accepted money from foreign governments during her time as secretary of state. Libertarian Gary Johnson had 8% of the vote in OH and 6% in Florida.
In Florida, the two candidates are about even in terms of favorability, with 46% having a positive impression of Clinton and 43% of Trump.
Similarly, while 72% of GOP voters believe Clinton’s health issues make her less able to be the president of the United States, 77% of Democrats disagree.
But most voters say they still expect to see Clinton prevail in November, and 59% think she will be the one to get to 270 electoral votes vs. 34% who think Trump has the better shot at winning.
Among all registered voters, Clinton edges Trump 45% to 44% in Florida.
A CNN/ORC poll, conducted September 7 through 12, found that Trump scored 46 percent of the vote in OH and 47% in Florida, with Clinton garnering just 41% and 44%, respectively.
The survey in OH was conducted with a random sample of 1,006 adults, including 769 likely voters; in Florida, 1,033 adults were selected randomly for the poll, with 788 of them likely voters.
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The comparison to Obama’s success among Jewish voters is not completely valid, because the current AJC poll included the option of voting for a third party candidate, which was not a possibility in 2012.
