Donald Trump appears to have successfully rallied Republican voters behind him since he effectively clinched his party’s presidential nomination, wiping out Democrat rival Hillary Clinton’s once double-digit lead to a virtual tie, latest national polls showed.
The 69-year-old real estate tycoon for the first time in the average of such polls, maintained by RealClearPolitics, has a 0.2 per cent lead over Clinton -- a statistical tie.
Trump has the support of 43.4 per cent of the general election registered voters, while 68-year-old Clinton has 43.2 per cent in average, according to RealClearPolitics.com.
Till a few weeks ago, Clinton had a double-digit lead over Trump. However, after Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee early this month, the lead has gradually narrowed and Trump even won in some of the latest polls.
Over the past few days several polls have shown Trump having lead over Clinton. For instance, in the latest poll of ABC News/Washington Post, Trump has a 2 per cent lead.
In Rasmussen Reports Poll, Trump leads Clinton by 5 per cent. The latest Fox News poll also shows Trump leading by three points.
Analysts believe the main reason for Trump’s popularity surge is that he now enjoys wider support from Republican voters after his decisive win in Indiana earlier this month, a victory that prompted his two remaining rivals to exit the race.
Clinton leads Trump by three points in NBC News/The Wall Street Journal poll and by six percentage points in CBS News/The New York Times Poll.
However, Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, who is the Democratic primary rival of Clinton, maintains a lead over Trump in these polls.
According to RealClearPolitics.com, Sanders has an average lead of 10.8 per cent over Trump.
Notwithstanding her narrowing lead over Trump, Clinton on Sunday asserted she would be her party’s presidential candidate and she is now fully focused on defeating the controversial billionaire in the November elections.
‘I am going to be the nominee. And I want to spend a lot of my time, as you’ve seen me do, really taking on Trump, because I find what he says, the kind of candidacy he’s presenting, to pose a danger to our country,’ Clinton told NBC News.
‘We know what we're going into and we understand what it’s going to take to win in the fall. And finally, I would say that, you know, polls this far out mean nothing. They certainly mean nothing to me. I think if people go back and look, they really mean nothing in terms of analysing what’s going to happen in the fall,’ she added.
