Clinton Leads Trump By 2 Points: Poll  

Washington: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is leading Republican rival Donald Trump by 2 percentage points among likely voters, according to a national Fox News poll.

In a four-way race, Clinton earned 45 percent support in the survey, which was conducted from Tuesday to Thursday, while Trump received 43 percent. Five percent of those surveyed said they support Libertarian Gary Johnson, and 2 percent said they support the Green Party's Jill Stein, the poll revealed on Friday.

In the poll, Trump was favoured by men (+11 points), whites (+19), and whites without a college degree (+33). Clinton led among women (+13 points), African-Americans (+74), and voters under age 30 (+17). She was also ahead by 11 points among the one-in-five who have already voted (50-39 percent). They split the support of whites with a college degree: Trump got 45 percent to Clinton's 42 percent.

Both candidates consolidated their bases, but Clinton outperforms Trump: she gets 90 percent among Democrats and he gets 85 percent of Republicans, the poll showed.

Some 74 percent of voters said the FBI investigation intoC linton's use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State would not make a difference to their vote, and 4 percent said it makes them more likely to support her.

Both candidates consolidated their bases, but Clinton outperforms Trump: she gets 90 percent among Democrats and he gets 85 percent of Republicans, the poll showed

Yet 21 percent said it makes them less likely to vote for her, including 37 percent of Republicans and 21 percent of independents. Among Democrats, 5 percent said it made them less likely to support Clinton, while 7 percent said it made them more likely. While both candidates remained unpopular, Clinton's lost her advantage here. Her net negative rating is 13 points (43 favourable vs. 56 unfavourable).

Last week she was underwater by 8. At the same time, Trump's net negative 12 points (43 favourable vs. 55 unfavourable) improved a bit from negative 14 a week ago, the poll showed. Roughly 15 percent of likely voters dislike both Clinton and Trump. Most of Clinton'a supporters remain confident in their candidate, as 90 percent think it will be Madame President, down slightly from 93 percent in mid-October.

At the same time, Trump's supporters felt more confident: 69 percent thought he would win, up from 56 percent. The Fox News Poll was based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,211 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide.

The survey included results among 1,107 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for results among registered voters and plus or minus 3 points among likely voters.

IANS