Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has taken a lead – albeit a small one and within margin of error – over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a new national poll, the first after last week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Advertisement
Trump, who was voted in as his party’s candidate during the four-day convention, is now up to five points ahead of Democrat presumptive presidential nominee Clinton in the latest poll from CNN/ORC.
A CNN/ORC poll shows Trump leading Clinton 44 percent to 39 percent – outside the margin of error.
Seventy-four percent of registered voters watched at least some of the 2016 Republican National Convention, up from 64 percent who watched it when Mitt Romney was nominated in 2012.
CNN said its new findings were the best showing for Trump against Clinton since September 2015. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, said she would resign from her post at the end of the convention. In 2000, Al Gore and George W. Bush each achieved eight point leads over each other in the weeks following their Parties’ respective campaigns.
The pair are also tied if Johnson and Stein are included in the polling.
Independents are not the only voters impressed by the overall RNC. Following the RNC, 46% of registered voters hold a favorable image of Trump while 39% viewed Trump positively prior to the convention.
And although his favorable rating has improved since before his convention (up four points), most voters – 53 percent – continue to have a negative opinion of him.
The addition of Vice Presidential running mates could account for some of the change in voter attitude as well.
Advertisement
Trump’s support is growing among independent voters. “Bernie fought for nothing!” Sixty-one percent of Republicans are glad that Donald Trump picked Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate, while just 15 percent wish he had named someone else. Clinton had led the “now cast” on every day since the forecasts began June 8.
