Virginia poll: Clinton leads Trump by 6 points

by Jesse Byrnes - 09/13/16 12:44 PM ET

Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 6 points in the battleground state of Virginia, according to a poll released Tuesday.

Polls in August had Clinton ahead of Trump by double digits in Virginia, so the new survey is good news for Trump, providing another sign of a tightening race.

{mosads}The survey from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling (PPP) found that Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, is supported by 45 percent of likely voters in the state, while Trump, the Republican nominee, has 39 percent support.

Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson takes 6 percent, followed by Green Party nominee Jill Stein at 2 percent and the independent Evan McMullin at 1 percent.

Clinton’s lead grows to 8 points in a head-to-head matchup against Trump.

In the seven previously conducted polls of Virginia going back to last month, Clinton led Trump by double digits in four. She has held on to a slim lead in the past two.

Trump has less support among his party than Clinton does among Democrats, according to the latest poll. Eighty-one percent of Republicans back Trump, while 93 percent of Democrats back Clinton.

A majority of likely voters in Virginia, 54 percent, say they’d rather have four more years of President Obama in office, compared with 41 percent who would want Trump.

Half of voters in the state also approve of the job performance of Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), while 37 percent disapprove.

That’s an improvement for Kaine from the 43 percent who approved and 35 percent who disapproved of his job performance in a PPP survey in June.

The latest survey of 878 likely voters was conducted via landlines and over the internet through an opt-in panel Sept. 9–11 and has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.

Tags 2016 presidential election Donald Trump Gary Johnson Hillary Clinton Tim Kaine Virginia