Latest Polls: Clinton-Trump Margin Continues To Tighten Post Weiner-Abedin Email News, Democratic Senate Seen Likely
The lead enjoyed by Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to have continued to be slowly, but surely, whittled away over the past week, both in the days leading up to and following Friday’s news of potentially thousands of emails stored by Clinton-aide Huma Abedin on a computer used by her infamous husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner, to sext with a 15-year-old, as previously reported by the Inquisitr.
The Clinton-Weiner-Abedin news came to light with a letter to Congress by FBI Director James Comey. Coming less than two weeks before Election Day, Comey’s move was described as the director “dropping a bomb” by Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks.
Voters have been watching the latest polls closely in the wake of the news. Fox News reported on a new poll, conducted by ABC News/Washington Post, with some data from later on Friday after the Anthony Weiner email news broke, which concluded that 34 percent of those asked would be “less likely” to vote for Hillary Clinton specifically after learning about the news. The poll gave Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald J. Trump each 46 and 45 percent of voter support nationally.
In the latest polls, Clinton, Trump, Libertarian Gary Johnson, and Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein have each maintained their relative standing nationally. The Democrat has 45.4 percent of voter support in national averages; the Republican, 43.0; the Libertarian, 4.4; and the Green, 2.1, as reported by Real Clear Politics.
In Clinton-Trump only Real Clear Politics national poll averages, Hillary leads the Donald, 47.7 to 44.7, by 3.0 percent. This is down from a lead of 5.2 percent observed early Friday, before the Weiner-Abedin news, as reported by the Inquisitr.
Current odds given by presidential election analysts FiveThirtyEight favor Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, 78.8 to 21.1 percent. Early Friday, Clinton was seen with an 82.0 percent chance at a November 8 victory. Over the same period, the election odds-maker’s views on the Democrats regaining control of the U.S. Senate have continued to be increased, from 69.9 percent on Friday, to 71.0 percent currently.
Over the past 24 hours, Pennsylvania has been flipped by Real Clear Politics from being a toss-up to a Hillary Clinton “lean.”
Nine states are currently classified as toss-ups by Real Clear Politics: Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Nevada, Iowa, Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, and Maine’s second congressional district.
Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight sees Hillary Clinton leading in Nevada, North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, and Maine, and Donald Trump leading in Arizona, Ohio, Georgia, and Iowa.
Although FiveThirtyEight currently sees Clinton leading Trump in Pennsylvania, founder Nate Silver asked yesterday, “What if Clinton wins North Carolina — and loses Pennsylvania?”
He concluded that this could be one of few possible paths to victory for Donald Trump.
Silver states that, as of yet, there is “not much evidence” — one way or the other — about the impact that FBI Director Comey’s letter and the Clinton-Weiner-Abedin connection will have on the perception of voters and ultimately, the outcome of the general election.
“The point is really just this: Despite the recent tightening, Clinton has a fairly significant lead in the polls of about 5 percentage points. So in order to win, Trump needs a further shift because of Comey or some other news — or he needs the polls to have been off the mark to begin with,” Silver writes with regard to the last-minute dissemination of the new Clinton-FBI news.
As more polling data collected over the weekend becomes available today, voters may begin to get a clearer picture of the impact the latest news will have on the 2016 Trump-Clinton race for the White House.
As CNN reports, the tight Clinton-Trump race has resulted in a “near constant stream” of campaign ads that have become exhausting for voters in Florida, a hotly contested swing state.
[Featured Image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
