Poll: Hillary Clinton’s Lead over Donald Trump Drops to 5 Points

A new USA Today poll reveals that Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump has dropped to 5 points, 45.6% to 40.4%. Clinton had led Trump by 11 points in May, 50% TO 39%.

Her lead drops even further, to four points (39%-35%), when third-party candidates Gary Johnson (Libertarian) and Jill Stein (Green) are added into the mix.

The poll was conducted among 1,000 likely voters, with a margin of error of 3%.

USA Today adds:

Clinton commands more positive allegiance than Trump. By more than 3-1, 74% to 22%, Clinton supporters say they are mostly voting for her, not against him. Trump’s backers are more evenly divided on their motivation: 48% are mostly voting for him; 39% are mostly voting against her.

Still, Trump supporters are a bit more likely to say they’re “excited” about the election, 27% compared to 24%. Clinton supporters are a bit more likely to say they’re “alarmed,” 62% to 56%.

And those in both camps vow their views are set in stone: More than nine of 10 of Clinton supporters and of Trump supporters say they is no chance they would switch to the other side. Just 12% of those surveyed are undecided, a smaller percentage than in the Suffolk Poll taken during the summer of the presidential race four years ago.

In the survey, 53% have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton; 60% have an unfavorable opinion of Trump. Nearly one in five respondents hold a negative view of them both — a swing group whose lesser-of-two-evils choice could determine the outcome of a competitive election, says David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.

(For some reason, USA Today claims: “Rounding would make the lead six points.” However, the difference between Clinton’s and Trump’s poll numbers, 5.2%, would still be rounded down to 5.)

Read more at USA Today.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.