Hillary Clinton has a 9 percentage point lead, 51-42, on Donald Trump in a two-way race among likely voters in Pennsylvania, according to a new poll unveiled Thursday.
According to the Bloomberg Politics poll, Clinton’s advantage grows to 28 percentage points, 59-31, in four Philadelphia suburbs that had formerly been consistently Republican.
“Hillary Clinton’s strength in the Philadelphia suburbs may clinch the state for her,” said pollster J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the poll, for Bloomberg. “It’s possible she will carry [Katie] McGinty to a win over [incumbent Republican Sen. Pat] Toomey in the U.S. Senate race.”
The poll found 80 percent of respondents in the Philadelphia suburbs were bothered by Trump’s comments in the leaked video tape where he talks about using his celebrity status to take advantage of women sexually. He has since apologized and dismissed his words as “locker room” banter.
But it’s not clear that Trump’s response to the video has had any impact in stopping the bleeding, even among his own supporters. The poll found nearly a quarter of Trump’s supporters were bothered a lot by the video, as were 69 percent of women and 51 percent of men.
The Bloomberg Politics poll surveyed 806 likely Pennsylvania voters by cellphone and landline telephones from Oct. 7-11 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The suburban Philadelphia voters sample of 373 likely voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.
