Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are locked in a dead heat in the battleground state of Virginia, according to a Roanoke College poll released Monday.
The likely presidential nominees both draw 38 percent support among voters in the Old Dominion, but continue to suffer from notoriously poor favorability ratings.
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Clinton, who carried Virginia in a landslide victory against her opponent Bernie Sanders in early March, is viewed favorably by just 30 percent of voters and unfavorably by 50 percent. Meanwhile, 56 percent of Virginians have a negative opinion of Trump, who narrowly beat Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the state, compared to 23 percent who view him favorably.
In addition to both candidates’ unpopularity, only 17 percent of respondents indicated they would feel “proud” if Clinton wins the presidency in November, while 30 percent would be “disgusted,” including 5 percent of Democratic voters. If Trump becomes commander-chief, 8 percent of Virginians said they would be proud and 42 percent, including 10 percent of Republicans, said they would be disgusted.
Still, despite Trump’s and Clinton’s likability issues and all the buzz surrounding the possibility of a third-party candidate, only 11 percent of respondents said they would vote for someone other than the two major party candidates. Two percent said they plan to sit the election out if the Manhattan billionaire and former secretary of state are their only options.
“This is not a ‘feel good’ poll,” Dr. Harry Wilson, director of Roanoke College’s Institute for Policy and Opinion Research, said in a statement. “We have talked about ‘lesser of the evils’ choices for several years, but this race may epitomize that statement … and we’ve barely begun the real nastiness.”
The last time Virginia was won by a Republican was in 2004, when incumbent President George W. Bush defeated then-Sen. John Kerry. Trump’s campaign recently signaled plans to build a significant field operation in the battleground state, in addition to installing GOP operatives in handful of traditionally blue states that the billionaire thinks he can flip.
The survey of 610 likely voters in Virginia was conducted May 9-17. Results contain a margin of error plus or minus 4 percentage points.
