Republican nominee Donald Trump trails his Democratic opponent by six points among likely voters ahead of next week’s debate, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday. As the country gets closer to Election Day, the tone is getting more serious, which should benefit Hillary Clinton and deliver more terrible news to Donald Trump.
Advertisement
Trump is also favored among independents in the state, 42 to 23 percent.
Unlike Clinton, who is spending nearly the entire rest of the week preparing for Monday, Trump has a busy campaign schedule this week, with no large blocks of time carved out for debate prep. Aides said his debate sessions planned for this weekend have been moved to Trump Tower in New York City, away from his Bedminster estate and golf course, to help him focus.
A new CNN Poll of Polls, including the NBC/WSJ data, finds Clinton’s edge over Trump has inched up by 1 point.
The poll was conducted after a tough stretch in which Clinton was sidelined with pneumonia and came under fire for referring to Trump supporters as “deplorables”.
Trump leads Clinton among white voters in the state, 58 to 27 percent. Among registered voters there is a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent, and with likely voters there is a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percent.
In a two-way matchup, Clinton leads Trump by 7 points, 48% to 41%.
In Ohio, Trump also holds a 5-point lead over Clinton, 42 to 37 percent. Meanwhile, 15 percent said it made them less likely to support Trump, and 3 percent said it made them more likely to support the GOP nominee.
Advertisement
Trump has a 20-point lead over Clinton among independent voters and a 26-point lead over his Democratic rival among working-class whites in Ohio. Polls by Fox News and CBS/New York Times last week showed a spread between the two candidates within the margin of error. That poll, also conducted September 18 to September 20 with a 3.5 percent margin of error, surveyed 737 likely voters. The margin of error for all three states is 3.5 percent. Florida on top of that-where he is polling in several recent surveys ahead or dead even with Clinton-would put Trump at 265 electoral votes, meaning along with Maine’s second congressional district which has one electoral vote where Trump is polling well ahead of Clinton he would need just one more state to win the presidency.
