Story highlights
A new poll shows Hillary Clinton with a 16-point lead over Donald Trump in Virginia
Recent polling suggests the battleground state is falling further out of reach for Trump
Hillary Clinton has a big lead over Donald Trump in Virginia, according to a new poll released Tuesday, which shows the Democratic nominee with a 16-point advantage in the state.
The Roanoke College poll found Clinton leading Trump 48% to 32% among likely Virginia voters in a four-way race. Libertarian Gary Johnson gets 8% support, while Green Party candidate Jill Stein is backed by 3%. In a two-way race, Clinton leads Trump 55% to 36%.
That’s in line with other recent polling of Virginia conducted over a similar time frame (August 7-17 for the Roanoke poll). A Quinnipiac poll taken within the same stretch found Clinton leading by 12 points, 50%-38%, while Washington Post poll showed Clinton up 51% to 43%.
Clinton performs better with her base than Trump in Virginia, as 91% of Democrats say they will vote for her, compared to 78% of Republicans who say they’ll vote for Trump. Clinton’s numbers have improved since May, while Trump’s have declined over the same period. The former Secretary of State is winning Independents 43% to 25%.
Clinton has also seen her favorable rating increase, though she still remains underwater – 39% now say they have a favorable opinion of the Democratic nominee, and 45% say they view her unfavorably (up from 35%-50% in May). Trump, on the other hand, has seen his favorable rating remain at 23%, while the percentage of those saying they view him unfavorably grew from 56% in May to 63%.
Additionally, Clinton leads Trump on a range of top election issues according to the poll – likely Virginia voters give her the edge on the economy, terrorism, health care, and immigration, and she has nearly 40-point advantages on race relations and foreign policy.
The Roanoke poll also surveyed likely voters on Clinton’s VP pick, Tim Kaine, who served as governor of Virginia before winning one of the state’s U.S. Senate seats. Fifty-two percent said they had a favorable opinion of Kaine, up big from 32% in January – and well ahead of Trump’s VP pick Mike Pence, who has a favorable rating of 24%, while 40% say they don’t know enough to have an opinion.
The Roanoke College poll was conducted between August 7 and 17, and sampled 803 likely Virginia voters. It has a margin of error of 3.5 points.
