Hillary Clinton holds a narrow two-point lead over Donald Trump, according to a poll released Wednesday that’s another indication the presidential race is tightening nationally.
Mrs. Clinton was at 42 percent to Mr. Trump’s 40 percent in the George Washington University Battleground Poll of likely voters nationwide, with Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson at 11 percent and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at 3 percent.
Those numbers included voters who were leaning toward a particular candidate.
“One of the major factors keeping the race tilting towards Mrs. Clinton is the strongly unfavorable image of Mr. Trump,” said pollster Ed Goeas, president and CEO of The Tarrance Group, which helped conduct the poll.
Mr. Goeas pointed out that Mr. Trump has a majority unfavorable rating with voters his campaign has been targeting, such as men (55 percent), white voters (51 percent), middle-class voters (59 percent) and voters whose top issue is dysfunction in government (66 percent).
Overall, Mrs. Clinton had a negative 43 percent/56 percent favorable/unfavorable split and Mr. Trump had a 38 percent/58 percent split.
“Were Donald Trump a more traditional Republican candidate who was running a more traditional presidential campaign, this data suggests he could win by a notable margin,” Mr. Goeas said.
Still, it’s the latest survey to show the race tightening, after Mrs. Clinton had been up by double digits in some surveys last month. A CNN/ORC national poll released Tuesday gave Mr. Trump a two-point lead over Mrs. Clinton in a four-way race.
The GWU survey also suggested that the inclusion of Mr. Johnson and Ms. Stein is hurting Mrs. Clinton more than Mr. Trump.
Of voters whose first choice was either of those two third-party candidates, 34 percent said they’d choose Mrs. Clinton in a head-to-head matchup against Mr. Trump and 26 percent said they’d choose Mr. Trump.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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