A new University of Delaware Center for Political Communication survey finds that 46 percent of registered voters would vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and 42 percent would vote for Republican candidate Donald Trump if the presidential election were being held today
The findings stand in contrast to other polls that showed Trump in the lead in key states, including Ohio.
The national telephone survey, conducted on July 21-24, interviewed 1,000 adult U.S. respondents by landline and cell phone, including 818 registered voters.
Nearly half of all respondents ay they feel “disgusted” about the Republican Party’s nomination of Trump. This is the most common feeling about Trump’s nomination, followed by “afraid” (42 percent ), “hopeful” (40 percent ), “proud” (31 percent) “angry” (31 percent), and “enthusiastic” (30 percent ).
Among Republicans, 82 percent feel hopeful and 69 percent feel proud, versus only 14 percent who feel disgusted or afraid. Meanwhile, 69 percent of Democrats feel disgusted, and 65 percent feel afraid.
Most Trump and Clinton supporters would be very disappointed if their candidate lost. Among those saying they would vote for Trump, 70 percent would be very disappointed and another 17 percent would be somewhat disappointed.
Among Clinton voters, 67 percent would be very disappointed and 19 percent would be somewhat disappointed.
Among all those surveyed, 59 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Trump (with 43 percent saying very unfavorable and 16 percent saying mostly unfavorable), compared to 37 percent who have a favorable opinion (18 percent very/19 percent mostly).
Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence fares better, with 40 percent viewing him favorably (19 percent very, /21 percent mostly) and 37 percent viewing him unfavorably.
Opinions split sharply across party lines for all four candidates, particularly Trump and Clinton.
Among Republicans, 80 percent view Trump favorably and only 18 percent view him unfavorably.
In contrast, 93 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, with only 6 percent holding a favorable opinion. Of the Democrats surveyed, 9 percent view Trump favorably, whereas 87 percent view him unfavorably.
Meanwhile, 83 percent of Democrats view Clinton favorably versus 12 percent who view her unfavorably. Independents rate Pence, Clinton, and (especially) Trump more negatively than positively, but split evenly on Kaine.
Around a quarter of respondents say they followed the Republican National Convention very closely and 34 percent followed it somewhat closely, with 19 percent following it not very closely and 20 percent not following it at all.
Of the respondents following the convention almost half say they heard something about it on Facebook. Only 16 percent say they heard something about the convention from Twitter.
Almost two-thirds of those surveyed could correctly identify Cleveland as the city hosting the Republican National Convention.
Around four in ten knew that Governor John Kasich did not attend the convention. Only around a quarter could correctly identify actor Scott Baio as a convention speaker.
