Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by seven points among likely voters in a head-to-head matchup, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll released Friday morning.
When third party candidates are added to the question, Clinton leads Trump by six points, 45-39, among likely voters, with Libertarian Gary Johnson at 10 points and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at four points.
The last national McClatchy-Marist poll released in early August did not survey likely voters and instead polled a broader pool of registered voters. In that poll, Clinton led Trump among registered voters by 15 points, 48-33.
TPM’s PollTracker Average shows Clinton leading Trump 43.3-41.6 nationally.
Marist surveyed 758 likely voters Sept. 15-20 via phone with a margin of error plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
7 points nationwide is good; hopefully Ohio and Florida will follow in train.
Nice to see her opening up another lead on a national level. Now i just need state polling to follow.
Another point or two from the Monday debate would be huge. Voters who don’t like Clinton and who will never vote for Trump may find her more acceptable after she shows strength and composure in the face of whichever Trump shows up with his usual bull jive.
I tend to think the debate might be worth a lot more this cycle. She could be looking at 3-5 points if she humiliates him and simultaneously humanizes herself. Too many people, especially young people, subscribe to this cartoon version of Clinton that has absolutely no connection to reality. If she can assuage the fears of those folks she might be able to bring some of them home and pick up some moderate Republicans who remain Never Trump. She’s got a heavier lift than I ever realized, but if she can pull it off Monday night she’ll probably be able to put this election to bed.
Hopefully state results start following next week. Also, hopefully the debate isn’t graded on too sharp a curve, because undoubtedly there will be one.