September 6, 2016
Trump comeback?
Republican Donald Trump's bumpy campaign path to date has left him behind his rival, and two articles this morning in The Washington Post (A new 50-state poll shows exactly why Clinton holds the advantage over Trump) and Politico (Has Trump hit his ceiling?) suggest that he may have insurmountable obstacles between him and the White House. But a CNN p0ll out this morning would seem to indicate he has pulled even with Clinton, at least nationally:
Poll: Nine weeks out, a near even race
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton start the race to November 8 on essentially even ground, with Trump edging Clinton by a scant two points among likely voters, and the contest sparking sharp divisions along demographic lines in a new CNN/ORC Poll.
Trump tops Clinton 45% to 43% in the new survey, with Libertarian Gary Johnson standing at 7% among likely voters in this poll and the Green Party's Jill Stein at just 2%....Trump holds an edge over Clinton as more trusted to handle two of voters' top four issues -- the economy (56% trust Trump vs. 41% Clinton) and terrorism (51% Trump to 45% Clinton). Clinton holds a solid edge on foreign policy (56% trust her to Trump's 40%), and the public is divided over the fourth issue in the bunch, immigration. On that, 49% favor Clinton's approach, 47% Trump's. At Trump's recent campaign appearances, he has argued that he would do more to improve life for racial and ethnic minorities, but voters seem to disagree, 58% say Clinton is better on that score vs. 36% who choose Trump, and among non-whites, 86% choose Clinton to just 12% who think Trump would better improve their lives.
It's only one poll, and most other surveys of voters continue to show Hillary Clinton with a lead. But with the end of Labor Day weekend often thought of as the unofficial start of the general election campaign, it appears that Trump may not be completely out of the running.