As The Daily Wire’s Aaron Bandler has reported time and time again, the Republican presidential nominee isn’t polling well against Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. That’s an understatement; he’s getting demolished across the electoral map. Overall, she’s up eight points, according to the new Washington Post-ABC News poll. This comes after a highly publicized, flamboyant GOP convention, which featured a slew of Trumpian mouthpieces, including soap opera celebrity Antonio Sabato Jr. and UFC president Dana White.
He’s now losing nearly every single demographic except men, where he’s leading by nearly 10 points, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
One place Trump has an advantage over Clinton in new Wa Po/ABC poll – men. (51% – 41%) https://t.co/cmbrQBlEI1 pic.twitter.com/UWPvNKg6Eb
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) August 7, 2016
So at least there’s one silver lining in an otherwise dismal polling performance. But that doesn’t change the electoral calculus all that much. Indeed, Trump’s support among women is incredibly low. Clinton has widened her lead with women, enjoying a 23-point advantage over Trump. Women, especially college-educated white women, are a must-win for Trump. This critical voting bloc have been a decisive factor in recent presidential elections. After a near-even split last month, Trump now trails Clinton by 19 points, as Clinton now garners 57% (to Trump’s 38%) support among college-educated white women.
The real estate mogul was banking on a post-convention bump that never came. The latest polls should worry Trump campaign operatives. A lot. The fact is, nearly every major presidential candidate in modern American history has gained some support after a week-long self-congratulatory party convention. “Conventions are not complicated things. They are a few nights’ worth of free media attention, during which each political party can make its best case to voters for the general election,” notes The Washington Post. “There’s lots of ceremony and far, far too many speakers, but at the end of the day, it’s just one long ad for a candidate — and, essentially, the only time during the campaign when this happens.”
But Trump’s “long ad” hasn’t been received well by the American public, at least according to the latest polling data. “As we’ve noted before, Donald Trump blew it,” The Post continues. “Gallup has been tracking the response from voters to conventions since 1984, and the Republican National Convention of 2016 was the first for which more people said it made them less likely to back the candidate.”
In theory, the goal of a convention is to expand the tent and draw in voters beyond a candidate’s base. Team Trump failed to do that. The billionaire businessman has only hardened his support among loyalists.
“He’s buttressed by factors including his big lead among non-college white men, 67-25 percent vs. Clinton, and the strong pull of ideology, with a 73-21 percent Trump lead among conservatives,” reports ABC News. “He’s also up by a vast 76-18 percent among evangelical white Protestants, a core GOP group, and has improved from July among non-evangelical white Protestants, to 55-38 percent, Trump-Clinton.”
Support among these groups should be automatic for a Republican nominee, so these numbers don’t change the dial all that much. Hillary Clinton is still highly favored to win this November, assuming the polling data is correct. Of course, things may change in the next couple of months, but as things stand now, it’s not a pretty picture for Team Trump.