New polls show Clinton gaining ground in deep-red Georgia, Alaska

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published 17 October 2016

As Donald Trump continues his slide in the polls, sparked in part by the influx of women coming forward to accuse the Republican nominee of sexual assault, the traditional electoral map is getting a shake-up. New polls released Monday show Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, pulling into a virtual tie in the usually deep-red states of Georgia and Alaska.

In Georgia, a state that last voted blue for Bill Clinton in 1992, the CBS News/YouGov election model as of Sunday shows Hillary Clinton ever-so-slightly leading Trump with 45.8 percent support to his 45.4 percent in the four-way match-up, which includes third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. Clinton held a slightly wider lead there in the same model Saturday, when she led Trump by 3 points — but the results are still a departure from the idea of the Peach State as a surefire win for the GOP. On average, Trump is still ahead in Georgia, as he leads the RealClearPolitics average by 5.5 points in the four-way race.

In Alaska, polling data provided to The Midnight Sun by the Alaska Democratic Party shows Clinton just one point behind Trump, pulling 36 percent support to his 37 percent in the four-way race. The poll was conducted by Lake Research Group, which is based in Washington, D.C., from Oct. 11-13, and included 500 likely voters. Trump's 1-point lead falls within the poll's 4.4-point margin of error; in August, the last time Lake Research Group polled Alaska voters, Trump led Clinton by 8 points. FiveThirtyEight's election forecast as of Monday puts Trump's chances of winning the state at 65.8 percent. Alaska last tilted left in a general election in 1964.