In the wake of Monday night’s debate, a new Suffolk University poll of likely voters in Nevada finds Hillary Clinton regaining the lead she lost to Donald Trump in mid-September, and widening the lead she had held in August to six points: 44%-38%.
Clinton’s lead in the same poll in August was a mere two points: 44%-42%. According to David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston, “Hillary Clinton’s strong debate performance resonated with women in Nevada. There was a corresponding increase in Donald Trump’s unfavorable rating, and fewer voters see him as honest and trustworthy.”
The poll found that among debate viewers, 57% thought Clinton had won the debate; 23% favored Trump. 60% of respondents thought Clinton had performed better than expected; only 27% thought Trump did so.
Clinton led with women, 49%-34%, a fifteen-point bulge, far greater than the five-point 44%-39% differential in August.
Trump’s unfavorable numbers rose to 59% from 55% in August; 61% of respondents believed he was dishonest and untrustworthy, as opposed to 52% in august.
Paleologos noted, “There are many positive data points for Hillary Clinton in this poll. only reasonably good news for Donald Trump is that Clinton’s 44 percent number never moved in the head-to-head matchup. Trump’s number dropped from 42 percent in August to 38 percent today, but he lost many of his voters to Gary Johnson, not Clinton.”
The issues that Nevadans were most concerned about were jobs/economy (23%), terrorism and national security (20%), choosing Supreme Court nominees (11%), and education (7%).
The polls in Nevada favored Clinton slightly in August, but shifted to a narrow lead for Trump until the debate.