Good, bad poll news for 2 campaigns

Clinton keeps edge as Trump draws even in key states

WASHINGTON— Hillary Clinton appears to have survived one of her worst stretches on the presidential campaign with her lead intact in some key battleground states, several new polls indicate.

Surveys released this week delivered good news to Donald Trump in some states, Clinton in others. But the balance continues to tilt toward the Democrat.

In Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio, newpolls by Fox News showed Trump leading, although narrowly. A poll released Thursday by The New York Times and Siena College showed the two candidates tied in North Carolina at 41 percent apiece.

The average of recent polls shows the two candidates neck and neck in each of those three states.

The problem for Trump is that even if he wins them, those states aren’t enough. If Trump wins all three — plus Iowa, which is also a tossup in recent polls, and Florida, where Clinton appears to hold a slight lead— he would still fall short of a majority of electoral votes.

To get a majority he needs to do all that and break the Democrats’ hold on one of the states they have repeatedly won in recent elections.

Republicans have targeted a handful of possibilities, but new polling in three of them — New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — showed Clinton holding on to her lead.

In two other states that once appeared to be battlegrounds, Virginia and Colorado, Democrats stopped airing television adsweeks ago because they felt Clinton’s lead was secure, andnewpolls released Thursday by Colorado Mesa University and Roanoke College indicate that continues to be the case. Campaign volunteers approach people waiting to enter a Donald Trump rally Thursday in Aston, Pa., a battleground state where Hillary Clinton has a lead according to several polls.

In New Hampshire, a survey releasedWednesday by Monmouth University showed Clinton with a nine-point lead over Trump, 47 percent to 38 percentamonglikely voters. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian nominee, drew 10 percent, while Jill Stein of the Green Party got 1 percent, the poll found.

Clinton has not trailed in aNewHampshire poll since mid-July, leading in 10 surveys by different organizations by margins that ranged from one point to 15. Onaverage, polls show her leading in the state by about six points.

In Wisconsin, a poll by Marquette University, also released Wednesday, showed Clinton leading

Trump 44 percent to 42 percentamonglikely voters, virtually identical to the lead she held in late August. Clinton had a slightly larger lead among all registered voters, 43 percent to 38 percent.

In a four-way matchup that included Johnson and Stein, Clinton’s lead was similar, 41 percent to 38 percent with Johnson at 11 percent and Stein at 2 percent among likely voters. Clinton led by four points among all registered voters in the four-way test.

Trump has not led in a Wisconsin poll all year and on average trails by about five points in recent polls.

And in Pennsylvania, a poll released this week by Muhlenberg College and

the AllentownMorning Call showed Clinton with a nine-point lead among likely voters, 47 percent to 38 percent.

As in New Hampshire, Clinton has not trailed Trump in a public poll in Pennsylvania since late July. She has led in 15 consecutive polls by margins ranging fromtwo to 11 points. On average, her lead in the state has been about six points.

The polls point to some of the challenges both nominees face, which so far have proven more daunting forTrump thanClinton.

The Marquette poll, for example, showed that in both parties, large numbers of voters wish their party had nominated someone else. But while Trump gets 65 percent of the vote from Republicans who would like a different candidate, Clinton gets 72 percent of the vote from Democrats who would have preferred someone else.

Both candidates are viewed unfavorably by large parts of the electorate, but Trump’s numbers are worse. Just over 6 in 10 Wisconsin voters view him unfavorably, while half of the state’s voters view Clinton unfavorably.

Overall, the NBC/Wall Street Journal survey had Clinton ahead by six points, 43 percent to 37 percent, among likely voters. Johnson took 9 percent and Stein 3 percent.

Among Latino voters, Clinton led 71 percent to 18 percent, the survey found— about the same advantage Obama had four years ago. In a four-way matchup including Johnson and Stein, her advantage fell to 65 percent to 17 percent, with Johnson at 9 percent and Stein 2 percent.

The poll showed areas of potential trouble for Clinton — notably a lack of enthusiasm about the campaign onthe part of younger voters and AfricanAmericans. But as Republicans saw in 2012, having an edge on enthusiasmdoesn’t guarantee victory. For now, with the campaign’s first debate on Monday, Clinton appears to still be on top.