Though Hillary Clinton remains the frontrunner ahead of the 2016 presidential election, the Democratic candidate’s favorability rating continues to decline amid scandal.
According to a Quinnipiac University national poll released Thursday, the former secretary of state’s favorability rating sank to 45 percent in May, one percentage point lower than the same statistic in April and three points less than it was in March.
The share of Americans viewing Clinton in favorable light has declined five percentage points since last November. Meanwhile, 47 percent see her unfavorably as the controversies surrounding the former secretary of state’s private email account and the Clinton Foundation’s foreign contributions continue to unfold.
Such scandals are undoubtedly the reason why the majority of American voters — 53 percent — do not believe Clinton to be trustworthy, while only 39 percent disagree.
Even women view Hillary as dishonest, with 47 percent of female American voters declining to characterize her as trustworthy and 45 percent claiming that they can trust her.
In contrast, American adults believe all official and potential Republican candidates mentioned in the poll — save Donald Trump — are more trustworthy than not.
However, the American people’s lack of trust in Clinton doesn’t stop them from selecting her over GOP candidates in hypothetical general election contests. Hillary leads each Republican contender — including Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush — by at least four percentage points.
She also crushes her liberal competition, winning support among 57 percent of Democratic voters, while Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden only walk away with 15 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
Republican voters, on the other hand, are severely divided, indicating that the 2016 GOP primary will be anything but dull.
Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson and Scott Walker all tie with 10 percent each, while a whopping 20 percent of conservative adults are still undecided.
