A major presidential poll released Sunday shows Republican Donald Trump closing the gap with Democrat Hillary Clinton, who has lost her double-digit lead in less than a month.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll of registered voters found Mrs. Clinton with 47 percent and Mr. Trump with 43 percent, a 12-point drop for the Democrat since the survey was last released June 26.
The poll comes with the Republicans expecting a bounce in the polls from the Republican National Convention, which kicks off Monday at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
Voters continue to be unhappy with both choices: 58 percent said they dissatisfied with the likely Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.
Mrs. Clinton’s biggest drawback remains questions about her honesty: Fully 72 percent said she is too willing to bend the rules, a week after FBI Director James Comey blasted her carelessness in using an unsecured server for State Department emails but declined to charge her.
As for Mr. Trump, 60 percent said he is unqualified to be president, just four months before the November election.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said that the results show that Mr. Trump has room to improve his standing with the voters, noting that Ronald Reagan also was viewed as unqualified early on during the 1980 campaign.
“Reagan had the same problem in 1979 going into 1980,” Mr. Priebus said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And I think what it does show in reality is that he has a lot of space to grow.”
The survey also found that majorities of voters in both parties are more enthusiastic about voting against the other candidate than voting in favor of their own.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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