Hillary Clinton’s unpopularity soared to a record high August, following several weeks of bad news for her campaign in the form of leaked documents showing donors to the Clinton Foundation had access to her when she led the State Department.
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll said 56 percent of all adults see Clinton unfavorably, up 6 points over the last three weeks. Just 41 percent see her favorably, the lowest number since the campaign began.
And among registered voters, 59 percent see Clinton unfavorably, about the same as the 60 percent who see Donald Trump unfavorably. These numbers make Clinton and Trump the two most unpopular presidential candidates in the past 30 years.
The numbers show a huge slide for Clinton among the groups that she’s counting on to win the general election, including women, independents and Hispanics.
In July, Clinton had a 54-43 favorable to unfavorable rating among women. But that flipped in late August, and she’s now at a deficit: 45-52. This is the first time in a year that most women have seen her unfavorably.
Independents continue to see Clinton unfavorably, but it’s gotten worse for her over the last few weeks. Her favorable-unfavorable ratio was 39-59 in early August, but now it’s 31-66, according to the poll.
Clinton is still favored overall by Hispanics, but it’s now much closer to even. In early August, she had a 71-28 favorable to unfavorable rating, but that slipped to 55-40 in late August, a 16-point drop.
The only groups where she saw improvements was Republicans, where she saw a 2-point increase in her favorability rating, and “very conservative” Republicans, where she gained one point.
Clinton is still ahead of Trump when it comes to popularity, but less ahead than she was. Her 41-56 split beats Trump’s 35-63.
But Trump’s low rating was essentially unchanged over August, while Clinton lost 7 points in the favorable column, and gained 6 points in the unfavorable column.
And among registered voters, the two are essentially tied: Clinton sits at 38 favorable to 59 unfavorable, to Trump’s 37-60.
The telephone-based poll of 1,020 U.S. adults was conducted Aug. 24-28 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
