Hillary Clinton has pulled ahead of Donald Trump in a trio of battleground states where the Republican presidential hopeful’s favorability rating has tanked since the release of a tape showed him making lewd comments about women, a new poll shows.
The former secretary of state leads Trump 45 to 43 percent in Ohio, 46 to 43 percent in Virginia and 46 to 42 percent in North Carolina, according to the latest Emerson College poll. All three battleground state polls were conducted after the second presidential debate on Sunday, during which Trump apologized for his sexually explicit comments in the Access Hollywood tape, but before several women accused the billionaire of sexual assault.
Trump maintains an edge among independent voters in all three states, though he has lost support since early September while his Democratic opponent has gained some. Still, the GOP nominee leads Clinton by 7 percentage points among independents in Ohio and North Carolina, and 5 percentage points in Virginia.
Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson carries double-digit support among independent voters in Ohio and Virginia, but draws only 6 percent support in North Carolina.
With the exception of Ohio, where Clinton’s favorability rating is split 50-50, both major party candidates are extremely unpopular. However, the percentage of voters who view Trump favorably in each of the three states has plummeted since early September — down 12 points in Ohio, and 6 points in Virginia and North Carolina.
The Emerson College polls of 600 likely voters in each battleground state were conducted from Oct. 10-12. Results contain a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points in all three states.
