Polls: Clinton Pulling Ahead in Battleground States
Democratic advantage seen in Senate races, too
Clinton was leading over Trump by an average of 8 points in polls compiled by Real Clear Politics in early July. Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet was polling an average of 12 points ahead of Republican Darryl Glenn. Bennet was once considered vulnerable and offered Republicans a rare chance to flip a Senate seat. The Republican challenge, though, has been hampered by allegations of voter signature fraud and resignations of top party officials.
The numbers show similar spikes for Clinton and down-ballot Democrats in other states.
Clinton is leading Trump by 15 points in New Hampshire, according to the Boston public radio station WBUR . That lead was attributed partly to a post-convention bump. The last time the station polled the state three months ago, the race was virtually tied.
“After all the hand-wringing about whether Bernie Sanders supporters would end up supporting Hillary Clinton, she’s now getting 86 percent of the Democratic vote,” Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group, which conducted the WBUR survey, told the station. “Donald Trump, on the other hand, has slipped a bit among Republicans. He’s now getting a bit less than two-thirds of the Republican vote.”
The WBUR survey also found that, while voters were split about Clinton’s fitness for the job, their concerns about Trump were far greater. Forty-eight percent of likely voters say Clinton is fit to be president, 46 percent say she’s not, it found. Less than a third say Trump is qualified, and more than 60 percent say he’s not.
In the Senate race — one of the most competitive in the country — Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan has a 10-point lead over incumbent Republican Kelly Ayotte, the poll found. Like many vulnerable Republicans, Ayotte has tried to maintain a middle ground on the controversial presidential nominee.
She has not explicitly endorsed him and has criticized some of his more controversial statements, though she has said she supports the Republican nominee.
Bobby Schostak, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, however, told the newspaper the polling in Michigan is likely to change this fall as voters get a closer look at Clinton and Trump in three presidential debates.
“It’s early August,” he told the newspaper. “We’ve got a lifetime in front of us before November.”