A new poll finds Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump deadlocked ahead of both parties’ national conventions, more evidence that the presidential race has tightened after several challenging weeks for the former secretary of state.
According to the New York Times/CBS poll, released Thursday, Clinton and Trump are tied at 40% each among registered voters. Both candidates remain tied at 36% when Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is included, who garners 12% support.
According to CNN’s Poll of Polls analysis using five recent surveys, Clinton still holds an edge over Trump, but it’s down from a 7 point lead in the Poll of Polls about a week ago to 4 points now.
The narrowing of the race coincides with the FBI closing the investigation into Clinton’s email use while secretary of state. According to the Times/CBS poll, 67% of voters say Clinton is not honest or trustworthy, which is a five point increase from a month ago. Just 28% say they think she is honest. And 46% say they think what she did was illegal, also up from 41% last month.
Though the FBI decided to not recommend criminal charges against Clinton, director James Comey issued a sharply worded rebuke during an explanatory press conference for her “extremely careless” email practices, and the findings revealed by the investigation contradicted some of the public statements Clinton has made when explaining her email use. Furthermore, in hearings on Capitol Hill about the investigation, Republican lawmakers raked Clinton over the issue.
Still, Trump doesn’t perform much better with voters on honesty and trust, per the poll. Sixty-two percent of voters also say they don’t think Trump fits that description.
But over the last month, Trump has also made gains among independents and has expanded his advantage with white voters, according the poll.
Most voters continue to give Clinton the advantage on who is best prepared to be president. But the NYT/CBS poll found that Trump has widened his lead on who would better handle the economy, now leading Clinton by 11 points on this issue. Clinton and Trump are about even on issues related to national security.
The NYT/CBS poll was conducted from July 8-12 — before Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton — and surveyed 1,600 adults including 1,358 registered voters.
