Republican front-runner Donald Trump overcame a 10 point deficit to tie Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton in a new national poll published Thursday by CBS and The New York Times.
Trump and Clinton are tied at 40 percent, the poll revealed. Both Clinton and Trump have strong support among their respective parties. CBS published a poll in April that showed Clinton had 50 percent of likely voters, while Trump earned 40 percent of the vote. Clinton fell last to 43 percent last month, and Trump fell to 37 percent.
Ninety percent of Republicans have “made up their minds” about their vote for Trump, While 88 percent of Democrats have “made up their minds” in their support for Clinton.
The weeks following the FBI decision to not indict Clinton were filled with conservative pundits reminding voters about Director James Comey saying it was “careless” of Clinton to handle her emails on a private server. The scandal did harm Clinton, 67 percent of likely voters rated Clinton as “not honest or trustworthy.” The reason Clinton is doing so well in the national head to head poll is because Trump’s numbers aren’t much better, 62 percent of likely voters rated Trump as “not honest or trustworthy.”
A majority of voters agreed that neither candidate was “well prepared” for the office of the presidency; 67 percent of voters said Trump wasn’t ready, and 48 percent rated Clinton as not ready.
A battleground state poll published by Quinnipiac University Wednesday showed that Trump also overcame a deficit to lead Clinton in Florida and Pennsylvania, two of the most important battleground states in the general election.
The CBS/NYT poll called 1,600 likely voters across cell phone and landlines from July 8-July 12.