September 24, 2016 | No Comments
Just two days before the first presidential debate, Donald Trump is narrowing the gap with Hillary Clinton in the key state of Pennsylvania, a new Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll released Saturday shows.
There is now a 3-point difference between the Democratic and GOP nominees, with Clinton leading 44 percent to 41 percent with likely voters in a head-to-head match up, according to the poll. The difference is within the margin of error, which is 5 points. Last week, Clinton held a 9-point lead over Trump, 47 percent to 38 percent.
With Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein added, the gap shrinks to 2 percentage points, with Clinton and Trump polling at 40 percent and 38 percent respectively. Johnson is at 8 percent and Stein at 3 percent.
The Senate race also saw GOP Sen. Pat Toomey leading Democratic challenger Katie McGinty, 41 percent to 40 percent. In that poll, there is a margin of error 5 points.
The poll was conducted between Sept. 19-23, amid reports of the blast in New York and bomb threat in New Jersey. There were 486 likely general election voters surveyed by telephone, with 251 surveyed on landline and 235 surveyed by cell phone. Chris Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, told Morning Call those events likely contributed to the shift among GOP candidates.