Poll: Hillary Clinton Underwater in Wake of Email Controversy

A poll conducted by the Huffington Post and YouGov found that an increasing number of people are following the Hillary Clinton email story. At the same time, Hillary’s favorability has dropped, nearing her low point since the 2014 election.

The poll found Hillary at 44 percent approval and 45 percent disapproval. Her lowest approval rating since 2014, according to Huffington Post, has been 43 percent.

This downturn coincides with 54 percent of respondents saying the email story—which involves Hillary’s use of a personal email account during her tenure as Secretary of State—is a very serious or somewhat serious problem, versus 37 percent who say it is not very or not at all serious.

The percentage of people who say they are following the controversy ticked up sharply in the wake of her press conference on the issue earlier this week. Prior to her press conference, a poll by YouGov found 53 percent of respondents were following the email story somewhat or very closely. Since the press conference, that number is up to 65 percent.

However, the poll also shows there is an increasingly large partisan division in reaction to the email story. Asked if they think Clinton’s use of a private email server is a serious or somewhat serious problem 81 percent of Republicans say yes (60 percent fall into the very serious category). Last week, only 67 percent of Republicans thought the issue was somewhat or very serious.

The overall change for Democrats is less dramatic. Last week, 33 percent said the issue was very or somewhat serious, and that result was about evenly split between those two options. After this week’s press conference, the overall figure is at 32 percent but the numbers have shifted. Now only 8 percent of Democrats say the issue is very serious and 24 percent say it is only somewhat serious. Most Democrats, 62 percent, say it is not very or not at all serious.

On this issue, independents seem to be tracking more closely with Republicans. Last week, 47 percent of independents said the issue was very or somewhat serious. This week, that figure is up to 55 percent.