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| Fox joining in with the main stream media :-) |
Hillary Clinton remains ahead of Donald Trump with just three weeks until Election Day.
She has a six-point lead over Trump, 45-39 percent,
in a new Fox News Poll of likely voters. Clinton was up by seven points
last week (45-38 percent) and by two in early October (44-42 percent).
Gary Johnson stands at 5 percent and Green Party’s Jill Stein at 3
percent.
In the head-to-head matchup, Clinton’s up by 49-42 percent. It was 49-41 percent at the end of last week (Oct. 10-12).
Clinton’s advantage over Trump is at the edge of the
poll’s margin of error in the four-way contest and outside the margin of
error in the head-to-head ballot.
The national poll, released Tuesday, was conducted
Saturday through Monday. The third and final presidential debate will
be moderated by Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace in Las Vegas Wednesday.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL POLL RESULTS
See the Fox News 2016 battleground prediction map and make your own election projections.
See Predictions Map →
A large gender gap marks the four-way race, as Trump
is ahead by 7 points among men, while Clinton is up 17 points among
women. She also leads among non-whites (+51 points) and younger voters
under 30 (+19). Johnson and Stein get the support of one in five of
these young voters.
Whites with a college degree favor Clinton (+9
points), while whites without a degree go for Trump (+27). He’s also
the choice among whites (+10 points), veterans (+17), and those who
regularly attend religious services (+16).
Trump has an edge among independents (+7), but is
hurt by a lack of party loyalty. Only 80 percent of Republicans back
him. Eighty-seven percent of Democrats support Clinton.
The two are about equally matched on strength of
support and interest. About two-thirds of each candidate’s supporters
back their choice “strongly,” and almost all of their supporters are
extremely or very interested in the race.
There are, however, major differences on temperament
and judgment. Overall, 61 percent of voters say Clinton has the
temperament to serve effectively as president. Sixty-one percent think
Trump doesn’t.
By a 7-point margin, voters say Clinton has the
judgment to serve (53-46 percent). It’s the reverse for Trump, as by a
23-point margin they believe he lacks the judgment (37-60 percent).
That goes a long way toward explaining why Clinton is
preferred over Trump by more voters when it comes to making decisions
about using nuclear weapons (+25 points), handling an international
crisis (+19), and handling foreign policy (+18).
While the two are more closely matched, Clinton also
comes out on top on nominating Supreme Court justices (+6 points), as
well as on handling the issues of Social Security/Medicare (+8),
immigration (+6), and terrorism (+4 points).
However, Trump tops Clinton by six points on handling
the economy -- and voters say that’s the most important issue facing
the country. Clinton briefly had the edge last week (+3 points).
Otherwise, Trump has consistently had a single-digit advantage on the
economy.
Republican pollster Daron Shaw says if the election
focus is on creating jobs and spurring economic growth, then “Trump is
very competitive.” Shaw conducts the Fox News Poll with Democrat Chris
Anderson.
Despite her close ties to the Obama administration,
by a slim 47-44 percent margin, voters pick Clinton over Trump as the
one who will “change the country for the better.”
More registered voters would feel “enthusiastic” or
“pleased” if Clinton were to win in November (37 percent), than would
feel that way about a Trump win (30 percent).
Both candidates receive more negative reactions to
them winning (displeased/scared) than positive ones
(enthusiastic/pleased). Over half would feel negatively if Trump were
to become the next president (56 percent), including 46 percent who
would feel “scared.” For Clinton, 48 percent would react negatively,
including 31 percent “scared.”
Seventy-six percent of Democrats would feel scared
about a Trump presidency. Far fewer Republicans, 56 percent, say a
Clinton victory scares them.
It’s well-established that neither candidate is seen
as honest by the electorate. Yet on specific scandals, the poll finds a
difference: more voters think Clinton is lying about how her emails
were handled while she was secretary of state (67 percent) than think
Trump is lying about the allegations women are making against him (51
percent). Even so, the email issue matters less in vote choice, as 24
percent of those who think Clinton is lying still back her, while just 8
percent of those who believe Trump is lying support him.
While neither is beloved, Trump’s personal ratings
are worse than Clinton’s. She has a net negative rating of 4 points (47
percent favorable vs. 51 percent unfavorable). Trump is under water by
19 points (40 percent favorable vs. 59 percent unfavorable).
Again, the party faithful aren’t all with Trump: 22
percent of Republicans have a negative opinion of him. That’s more than
twice the number of Democrats who view Clinton unfavorably (9 percent).
Even so, 77 percent of Republicans view Trump
favorably, which is much more positive than their view of some of his
GOP primary opponents: Ted Cruz (59 percent), Jeb Bush (56 percent),
and John Kasich (44 percent). Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump
surrogate, is viewed favorably by 72 percent of Republicans.
Clinton (91 percent favorable) has higher favorable
ratings among Democrats than some of her surrogates, like former
President Bill Clinton (88 percent favorable) and former Vice President
Al Gore (76 percent favorable).
The stand-out is First Lady Michelle Obama, who gets a
59 percent positive rating overall, and a 95 percent favorable among
Democrats.
Pollpourri
Are the media being fair to the candidates? Many voters don’t think so.
Fifty-one percent say news coverage of Trump has been
fair (46 percent) or biased in his favor (5 percent). Yet 43 percent
say it’s been unfairly biased against him.
On the other hand, more than 8-in-10 think coverage
of Clinton has either been fair (55 percent) or unfairly positive (27
percent). Only 11 percent feel it’s been anti-Clinton.
Seventy-eight percent of those backing Clinton think
her coverage has been fair or in her favor. For Trump, that number is
just 13 percent.
The Fox News Poll is based on landline and cellphone
interviews with 1,011 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and
was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D)
and Shaw & Company Research (R) from October 15-17, 2016. The
survey includes results among 912 likely voters. The margin of sampling
error is plus or minus three percentage points for results among both
registered and likely voters.
