Virginia Poll Finds Trump Polls Within Seven Points Of Clinton

Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Grace PaloWMAL.com

WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has risen in the Virginia polls and is now within seven points of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee.

A new poll released on by the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University shows that Clinton leads 46 percent to Trump’s 39 percent. The poll finds that more and more GOP voters are getting on board with the party nominee.

In a poll released by the Wason Center a week earlier, Trump had been trailing Clinton by 12 points. Before that, he had been trailing 15 points in mid October, which wad been conducted immediately following the released comments Trump had made in 2005.

“I think what we’re seeing is a pattern among Republican voters in Virginia,” Quentin Kidd, director of the Wason Center, said, “This is consistent with the last Governor’s race, the last Senate race, where Republican voters seem to be breaking late for the Republican candidate.”Virginia will play a critical role in the presidential race. What was once a strong red state has shifted to a swing state since 2008 when it President Barrack Obama won there, then again in 2012.

Following reports that Trump was going to pull back some of his efforts in Virginia, Trump announced a last-minute push in the state, where he held a rally in Virginia Beach on Saturday and announced a $2 million TV ad. His campaign has insisted that polls have so far underestimated the GOP strength in the most recent races for governor and Senate.

The survey of 815 likely Virginia voters, conducted Oct. 23 through Oct. 26, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

There is now a solid 8% of voters who are still undecided according to the poll. “This is not unexpected as we approach Election Day,” Kidd said. “But as the polls tighten, there can’t be undecided voters at the end of the day. They either won’t vote or they’ll pick a candidate. Probably one of the major ones too.”

Trump is drawing more support now from Republicans, with a solid 84 percent that now support the GOP nominee. That rise nearly closes the party loyalty gap, as 87 percent of Democrats said they back Clinton.

Independents, having moved away from Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, support Clinton 46 percent to Trump’s 39 percent.

(Photo: CNN)