Poll: Clinton extends lead in Ohio

In Ohio, which is so critical to Donald Trump’s electoral fortunes, it is Hillary Clinton who has extended her lead and is now up six points, 46 percent to 40 percent; she was up four points in July. Clinton has made gains among women, and remains bolstered by a nearly-unified Democratic base. She wins 90 percent of Democrats, while Trump remains hampered by just enough reluctant Republicans: He’s at 79 percent of GOPers.

In Iowa, the two are even, each with 40 percent support. This is the only state in recent polling that doesn’t show Clinton with an outright lead. In some ways, the tie there just spotlights Trump’s difficulty breaking out beyond his base, more generally. Iowa has many older voters and Trump does well with them.

In Iowa, as in Ohio, older voters say that American life is changing for the worse. However Trump is struggling with younger voters, the youngest of whom are the most likely to disagree with that assessment. Trump continues to do his best with white voters, but he struggles with African American voters in Ohio -- as in other states -- and in what has amounted to trouble for him in other states like Arizona and Florida, he does poorly with Hispanic voters.

The poll asked people what it would take to get them to reconsider Trump, if they aren’t currently voting for him. While there aren’t a lot of people who said that anything could make them rethink the contest – fewer than one in five – there are enough people that Trump could potentially make some inroads. Their top answer is that Trump convinces them he is “prepared to be commander-in-chief.” This may not be a surprise, given that this metric is the one that has cost Trump the most in recent polling across many states. (In this survey of Ohio, just 35 percent feel he is prepared.) And 17 percent of those not with him might reconsider if he “apologizes to people he has offended” – though that sets up a balancing act for him because other recent polls have suggested his current supporters would not see any such needs.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/poll-clinton-extends-lead-in-ohio/ar-BBvSzYz?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp