National polls: Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump heading into debate night
Hillary Clinton has solidified her lead nationally as she and Donald Trump prepare to meet for their third and final presidential debate, according to a trio of new polls this week.
All three polls—from Quinnipiac, Bloomberg and Fox News—find the Democratic nominee leading by mid- to high single digits.
In the Quinnipiac poll, released Wednesday afternoon, Clinton leads Trump among likely voters by 7 points, 47 percent to 40 percent. (Libertarian Gary Johnson is at 7 percent in the poll, followed by Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 1 percent). In early October, Clinton led Trump by 5 points in the same poll.
Bloomberg’s survey, also released Wednesday, has Clinton up by a slightly larger 9-point margin among likely voters, 50 percent to 41 percent. Back in mid-September, Bloomberg had the pair tied. Clinton has closed the gender gap with male voters in the Bloomberg poll: she wins 46 percent of men in a hypothetical two-way race, compared with 44 percent for Trump. Among women, Clinton leads by 17 points, including by 1 point among white women.
And according to Fox News’ latest poll, released Tuesday, Clinton leads by 6 points. She takes 45 percent in the poll, compared with 39 percent for Trump, 5 percent for Johnson and 3 percent for Stein.
All three polls were taken at least a week after the release of a 2005 video showing Donald Trump making lewd remarks about women. The tape upended the presidential race, causing many top Republican leaders to withdraw their endorsements and more women to come forward accusing Trump of sexual misconduct or assault.
The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,007 likely voters from Oct. 17-18 and has a margin of error or +/- 3.1 percentage points. The Bloomberg poll surveyed 1,006 likely voters from Oct. 14-17 and also has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points. The Fox News poll surveyed 912 likely voters from Oct. 15-17 and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
