Hillary Clinton is losing ground in three more key swing states, including Iowa, which holds the first-in-the-nation caucuses and derailed Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, and trails Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in two of them as more voters do not view her as “honest and trustworthy” in the wake of her private email scandal, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.
Voters in Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia do not think Clinton is “honest and trustworthy,” and Clinton’s leads over potential Republican opponents have diminished in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups. For instance, Paul, who formally launched his presidential campaign this week and blasted Clinton for her private email scandal and the “shenanigans” associated with donations to her family’s foundation, leads Clinton in Colorado 44% to 41%. Clinton trails Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (42%-41%) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is expected to announce his candidacy on this month, (41%-40%) and is virtually tied with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in the state.
In Colorado, Clinton has a negative favorability rating (41%-51%), down from her 46%-47% favorability rating in February. Fifty-six percent of Colorado voters do not view her has “honest and trustworthy” and a majority of Colorado voters believe her email scandal is important to their vote.
“Ominous for Hillary Clinton is the broad scope of the movement today compared to her showing in Quinnipiac University’s mid-February survey. It isn’t just one or two Republicans who are stepping up; it’s virtually the entire GOP field that is running better against her,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “That’s why it is difficult to see Secretary Clinton’s slippage as anything other than a further toll on her image from the furor over her e-mail.”
In Iowa, Paul edges Clinton (43%-42%), who is virtually tied with nearly every potential Republican opponent. Clinton barely leads New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (41%-39%), former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (41%-40%), Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (44%-40%), and Sen. Ted Cruz (43%-40%) in the state. She has a negative favorability rating in Iowa (45%-47%), down from her positive 49%-40% rating in February in that state. A plurality of Iowa voters (49%-43%) do not think she is “honest and trustworthy” and a majority believe the email scandal is important in their vote.
Clinton lost Iowa to Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary, ultimately finishing third after her advisers had debated whether she should even compete in the state. Obama’s Iowa win galvanized his supporters in other states who were uncertain about whether Obama could win and ultimately propelled him to his party’s nomination and the presidency.
Virginia, where Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe is governor, is Clinton’s strongest state. She leads Paul 47% to 43% in the increasingly important swing state. She has a 48%-45% positive favorability rating, virtually unchanged from her 48%-44% rating in February. But a majority of voters in the state (52%-40%) believe that Clinton is “not honest and trustworthy.” Clinton’s email scandal is also important to a majority of Virginia voters (51%-47%).
Brown, the assistant director of the poll, said that “running as a competent but dishonest candidate has serious potential problems” for Clinton.
A Quinnipiac poll released on March 31 found that voters in three other swing states–Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida–also did not view Clinton as honest and trustworthy. Clinton trailed Paul in Pennsylvania as her favorability ratings slipped in each of those swing states after her private email scandal. Brown said “these numbers are a boost for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky as he formally launches his campaign.”
Quinnipiac polled the three swing states (Iowa, Colorado, Virginia) from March 29-April 7, and the margin of error is +/- 3.3 percentage points for Colorado and +/- 3.2 percentage points for Virginia and Iowa.