POLL VAULT
Trump flies, Hill cries in 4th straight prez survey
Donald Trump is pulling ahead of or even with Hillary Clinton, according to two major national polls out Sunday — marking four surveys in a row in which he has crept up on or surpassed her
In a Washington Post/ABC News poll, voters now favor Trump over Clinton to succeed President Obama by 46 to 44 percent — the first time the Manhattan mogul has led in this survey. The poll of 829 registered voters was conducted May 16-19.
Even with the poll’s margin of error of 3.5 points, the numbers show an 11-percentage-point surge toward Trump since the same survey was conducted in March, when he trailed Clinton by 9 points.
And Clinton’s lead in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll has all but evaporated, down to just 3 percentage points, a difference within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
In that poll of 1,000 registered voters conducted May 15-19, Clinton now barely edges the presumptive Republican nominee 46-43 percent.
In the same poll in April, the former secretary of state, New York senator and first lady held a hefty 11-point advantage over Trump, 50-39 percent, and she had led him by double digits since December.
The polls seemed to cement the momentum shift signaled by a pair of surveys last week showing the former secretary of state trailing the billionaire tycoon.
Trump was shown in front of Clinton in last week’s polls from both Fox News (45-42 percent) and Rasmussen (42-37 percent).
Both polls also showed the mogul closing the gap or widening his own lead — an April 14 Fox poll had Clinton ahead 48-41 percent, and a May 2 Rasmussen poll had Trump up 41-39 percent.
Trump’s rise in the polls can be chalked up in part to non-partyaffiliated voters giving him a closer look, said Republican strategist Susan del Percio. In the Washington Post/ABC poll, Trump leads Clinton among independent voters by 13 points — a 22-point swing.
That “Trump effect” could benefit Republicans in multiple races, del Percio said.
“The increase in support among independents for Trump is not only good news for Mr. Trump but also extremely good news for Republicans in tight Senate and House races,” she said.
But Clinton downplayed the erosion of her advantage, insisting Sunday that she is a better choice to defeat Trump than her-Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders — who continues to hammer away at the former New York senator.
“People have voted for me overwhelmingly in the Democratic primary process,” Clinton told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I just think that I’m in a much stronger position.”
Meanwhile, Sunday’s polls also showed that Americans won’t like their next president — no matter who it is.
A majority of registered voters, 57 percent, view both Clinton and Trump unfavorably, according to the Washington Post/ABC survey.
Of those, 46 percent said they had strongly unfavorable opin- ions of Clinton, while 45 percent said the same thing about Trump.
And in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 54 percent of voters had a negative opinion of Clinton while 58 percent of voters had a negative opinion of Trump. Only 34 percent of voters had a positive impression of Clinton and only 29 percent of voters viewed Trump favorably.
The same poll showed Sanders trouncing Trump 54 to 39 percent among registered voters.
And the Vermont senator had much better ratings than the likely nominees. Of those polled, 43 percent reported having a positive view of him.
“We need a campaign, an election, coming up which does not have two candidates who are really very, very strongly disliked,” Sanders told ABC News Sunday.