Hillary Clinton’s Growing Problem With Independents

[Dexter]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/05/03/hillary-clintons-growing-problem-with-independents/

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton faces a mounting challenge among independent voters following months of attacks from rival Bernie Sanders. An April Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that Mrs. Clinton’s favorability rating among independents had dropped 15 percentage points in the last four months alone. That poll found that 20% of independents viewed Mrs. Clinton positively, compared with 62% who viewed her negatively—a gap of 42 percentage points. In January, that same poll found her with a positive rating of 35% and a negative rating of 54%—a gap of fewer than 20 percentage points. A year earlier, four months before she launched her presidential campaign, that gap stood at just four percentage points—35% positive to 39% negative.

Mrs. Clinton’s favorability ratings have also declined among Democrats. Her positive rating among Democrats dropped to 63% last month from 71% in January, while her negative rating rose six points to 20%. Last April, when she first announced she was running for president, 76% of Democrats viewed her positively while just 8% viewed her negatively.