Donald Trump languished six points behind Hillary Clinton in a Fox News poll out Wednesday, one of several recent national surveys to show the billionaire businessman trailing the former secretary of state.
Clinton received 44 percent support compared to 38 percent for Trump, and over half of Republicans reported wanting someone other than Trump to be their party’s nominee.
With the inclusion of Libertarian Gary Johnson in a hypothetical three-way vote, both top candidates lose ground. Clinton remained in the lead with 41 percent to Trump’s 36 percent, while Johnson earned 10 percent of the vote.
The late June results represent a steady decline in the Fox survey for Trump. In a poll from earlier this month, Clinton led 42 percent to Trump’s 39 percent. As recently as May, when he emerged as the presumptive GOP nominee, Trump was leading Clinton by 3 points with 45 percent of the vote compared to Clinton’s 42 percent.
Clinton had huge leads among minorities, women, and young people, while Trump’s base of support came from white evangelical Christians, men, gun owners, and whites without a college degree.
Trump seemed to be losing ground among voters within his own party. The poll found that only 74 percent of Republicans backed him over Clinton, an 8-point drop from May. A slight majority of Republicans—51 percent—said they would rather have a different nominee.
An overwhelming 89 percent of voters called Trump “hot-headed,” while 83 percent labeled him “obnoxious.” Clinton received 35 percent and 45 percent in those respective categories.
The former secretary of state fared better among Democratic voters, earning 83 percent of their support. 58 percent of voters said they wanted Clinton as their nominee, compared to 37 percent for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“The results here aren’t disastrous for Trump given the troubles he’s encountered the past few weeks,” Fox News pollster Daron Shaw said. “He’s within striking distance. But he absolutely must combat the growing perception that he is temperamentally unsuited and intellectually unprepared to be president.”
The Fox News survey was conducted by telephone with 1,017 registered voters between June 26-28. The margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.
