By The Staff | The Save Jersey Blog
Headlines may be taking their toll on the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, Save Jerseyans, as GOP delegates kick off their Cleveland convention.
In a brand new survey released from the New Jersey-based Monmouth University Poll, the former Secretary of State leads challenger Donald Trump by only 3-points (43% to 40%) among registered voters and by only 2-points among likely voters (45% to 41%).
Libertarian Gary Johnson attracts just 5% of likely voters while Green Party nominee Jill Stein pulls 1%. The number of registered voters “going third party” has dropped from 15% to 9% in the last month.
Holding Trump back?
He garners only 81% of support from Republicans (Clinton gets 88% of Democrats) despite winning independents by a 9-point margin (40% to 31%).
There’s also the Electoral College obstacle; Clinton’s national lead is relatively small compared to her 7-point (46% to 39%) edge over Trump in the so-called swing states (defined by polling director Patrick Murray as “the ten states in 2012 that were decided by less than seven points”).
“Clinton still leads, but Trump is closing the margin. The next two weeks will be crucial to determining which direction this trend goes,” opined Murray. “Johnson and other third party candidates are not gaining traction. Voters concerned about keeping one or the other major party nominee out of the White House may feel they have to support the ‘lesser of two evils’.”
You can check out the full polling report here.
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