September 21, 2016, 05:20 pm
National poll: Clinton leads Trump by 6 points
By Jesse Byrnes
Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 6 points nationally, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
Clinton (D) has 43 percent support among likely voters, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found, while Trump (R) is at 37 percent.
Third-party presidential candidates combine for 12 percent support, with Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson at 9 percent and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at 3 percent.
Fifty percent of Clinton supporters say they are voting affirmatively for Clinton, while 44 percent say they are backing her out of opposition to Trump.
In contrast, 51 percent of Trump's backers say their vote is primarily out of opposition to Clinton.
The poll is a positive sign for the Democratic nominee, who has faced tightening polls in recent weeks.
Several recent polls have reported the race to be a dead heat, with some showing Trump ahead nationally.
In a head-to-head matchup, Clinton extends her lead over Trump to 7 points among likely voters — 48 percent to 41 percent.
The survey comes as Trump and Clinton prepare to square off in their first debate Monday night in New York. It's the first of three scheduled debates between the pair.
The NBC/Journal survey of 1,000 registered voters and 922 likely voters was conducted via telephone Sept. 16–19 with a margin of error of 3.23 percentage points for likely voters and 3.1 points for registered voters.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/297110-national-poll-clinton-holds-onto-6-point-lead
