In recent polls, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are essentially tied—at least, in terms of how many people don’t want to vote for them. In a recent Washington Post/ABC poll, 57 percent of voters labeled both Clinton and Trump as “unfavorable.” About 45 percent of voters even went so far as to say they were “strongly unfavorable.” Basically, in an election with just three candidates, two of the options are already disliked by both parties.
Not every poll shows that this general disapproval is the same across the board, though. A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showed that Hillary Clinton was unfavorable to 54 percent of voters, as opposed to 58 percent for Trump.
On the Republican side, these numbers actually show an increase in support for Trump, which may come as a surprise based on the mixed reviews he has been hearing from conservatives. This means his already high disapproval among voters used to be even higher, according to NBC News. As conservative leaders—perhaps even Speaker of the House Paul Ryan—begin to warm to the loud and flashy candidate, so do Republican voters.
In terms of the Democratic nomination bid, Clinton has consistently remained ahead of competitor Bernie Sanders. Even so, she has yet to gain enough delegate support to become the Democratic nominee. This weakness for Clinton is furthered by Sanders and his supporters promising to continue fighting hard until the Democratic National Convention this summer. In many recent polls, Sanders seems to be the most favorable candidate among all parties. The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showed he has a 43 percent favorability rating, with only 36 percent of voters seeing him as unfavorable.
Hillary and Donald are also near-tied for who would win in the general election, according to CNN. The WSJ/NBC poll showed Clinton beating Trump 46 to 43 percent. Meanwhile, the WP/ABC poll had Trump winning 46 percent to 44 percent. These are small differences of just two or three percentage points, which are often within the margin of error for polls like these.
Bernie Sanders fared far better against Donald Trump in a poll of the general election. NBC News reported that Bernie could, hypothetically of course, beat Trump 54 percent to 39 percent.
However, if it does come down to Hillary v. Trump, 47 percent of registered voters told NBC that they would consider a third-party candidate. Although 50 percent of voters disagreed with this, the number of those who said they would vote for a third-party candidate is higher than what this poll found in both the 2008 and 2012 elections. However, CBS News and The New York Times found in their poll last week that if Clinton and Trump do become the two main party nominees, their parties will support them. “71 percent of Republican voters who did not support Trump in the primaries would still vote for him against Clinton. On the Democratic side, 72 percent of Sanders supporters would vote for Clinton against Donald Trump.”
Summer is fast approaching, which means that the presidential election is getting closer and closer every day. With Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee, who will eventually challenge him on the Democratic side?