Hillary Clinton opens up double-digit lead as Donald Trump's poll numbers collapse

Hillary Clinton pulls ahead of Donald Trump in a new poll

(Image credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

last updated 27 June 2016

Donald Trump is returning from a weekend in Scotland to a terrible new poll from The Washington Post/ABC News, and while he'll likely ignore the survey, other Republicans might be concerned. In the poll, conducted June 20-23, Hillary Clinton opens up a 12-point lead, beating Trump 51 percent to 39 percent among registered voters; in the last Washington Post/ABC News survey in May, Trump led Clinton 46 percent to 44 percent. In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, also released Sunday, Clinton leads Trump by just 5 points, 46 percent to 41 percent.

Clinton's rise is due in part to supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders coming over to Clinton's side — in the May Washington Post/ABC News poll, 20 percent of Sanders voters said they would support Trump, versus 8 percent in the new poll — but mostly because of Trump's unforced errors. For example, 68 percent of voters (including 39 percent of Republicans) said Trump's comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing a Trump University fraud lawsuit, were racist, and 85 percent said they were inappropriate, including 71 percent of Republicans. Voters approved of Clinton's response to the Orlando nightclub massacre over Trump's by an 18-point margin, and 66 percent of voters said Trump's comments about women, minorities, and Muslims are "unfairly biased."

It's not all great news for Clinton — 56 percent in the Washington Post/ABC poll disapprove of her handing of email while secretary of state, 18 percent who think Trump is racist plan to vote for him anyway, and Trump leads her 64 percent to 26 percent among the 56 percent of voters who want the next president to lead the country in a new direction. (Confusingly, President Obama's approval rating is 56 percent in the poll.) But 61 percent of voters said Clinton is qualified to be president, while 64 percent say Trump is not qualified, including 56 percent who say they feel that strongly and almost a third of Republicans.

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In both the Washington Post/ABC poll, which has a margin of error of ±4 points, and the WSJ/NBC poll, with a ±3.1 points margin of error, 79 percent of Republicans backed Trump, while at least 85 percent of Democrats supported Clinton. When Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party's Jill Stein were included, Clinton's lead shrank to 1 point in the WSJ/NBC poll (Johnson: 10 percent; Stein 6 percent), while in the Washington Post/ABC poll she retained a 10-point lead over Trump (Johnson: 7 percent; Stein: 3 percent).

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.