A new poll showed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with a 5-point lead over Republican rival Donald Trump in a head-to-head match-up, but the presidential race was a statistic dead heat when third-party candidates were included as will be the case in November.
Mrs. Clinton topped Mr. Trump 46 percent to 41 percent in a two-way race, according to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday.
The race tightened considerably when Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein were added. Mrs. Clinton barely edged out Mr. Trump 39 percent to 38 percent, within the survey’s margin of error.
Mr. Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, received 10 percent of the vote and Ms. Stein garner 6 percent, the poll said.
In the two-way race, Mrs. Clinton slightly increased her lead over Mr. Trump from the same poll in May when she led 46 percent to 43 percent.
The pollsters noted that little had changed in the Clinton vs Trump contest despite Mrs. Clinton clinching the nomination, a terror attack in Orlando, Florida, and consistent bad press for Mr. Trump in the week before the June survey.
Much like the previous month, Mrs. Clinton led Mr. Trump among African-Americans (87 percent to 5 percent), Latinos (69 percent to 22 percent), voters under age 35 (53 percent to 30 percent) and women (52 percent to 35 percent).
Mr. Trump continued to have the advantage among white voters (49 percent to 37 percent), men (48 percent to 38 percent) and independents (40 percent to 30 percent).
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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