After primaries, a bleak poll landscape for Trump

Donald Trump may have a difficult but not improbable route to the Republican presidential nomination, reports AFP from Washington. When it comes to ultimate victory in November’s general election, however, the real estate tycoon faces a far more forbidding path. He still needs to repel the late revolt by rival Ted Cruz as the two gallop toward the campaign season’s final primary races along with third-placed John Kasich. But the nightmare scenario for Republicans is inching closer toward reality: a candidate who wins the nomination, but whose unfavorability rating is so sky high that he loses in an Election Day landslide, perhaps even throwing the Republican control of Congress into jeopardy.
Poll after poll shows it would be prohibitively tough for Trump—a political novice who has capitalized on voter disgust with Washington—to convert a possible nomination victory into a viable head-to-head campaign against the likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who also faces high unfavorable numbers. Of the 57 Clinton-Trump matchup polls in the RealClearPolitics database dating back to last May, only five show Trump ahead. Clinton averages a 10.8 percentage point lead nationwide. In the hypothetical matchup polls between Democratic nomination challenger Bernie Sanders and Trump, Sanders averages an even larger lead: 16.5 points. With one of the parties having won a third straight White House term only once since 1952, history suggests an advantage for the Republicans this year. But Trump, with his insurgent, outsider campaign—complete with bombastic and denigrating statements against Mexicans, Muslims and women—has turned that narrative on its head.
“There is no doubt that Donald Trump has tilted the election from what was one slightly leaning to the Republicans to now one that’s slightly leaning to the Democrats,” George Washington University’s Lara Brown said.

After primaries, a bleak poll landscape for Trump

Donald Trump may have a difficult but not improbable route to the Republican presidential nomination, reports AFP from Washington. When it comes to ultimate victory in Novembers general election, however, the real estate tycoon faces a far more forbidding path. He still needs to repel the late revolt by rival Ted Cruz as the two gallop toward the campaign seasons final primary races along with third-placed John Kasich. But the nightmare scenario for Republicans is inching closer toward reality: a candidate who wins the nomination, but whose unfavorability rating is so sky high that he loses in an Election Day landslide, perhaps even throwing the Republican control of Congress into jeopardy. Poll after poll shows it would be prohibitively tough for Trumpa political novice who has capitalized on voter disgust with Washingtonto convert a possible nomination victory into a viable head-to-head campaign against the likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who also faces high unfavorable numbers. Of the 57 Clinton-Trump matchup polls in the RealClearPolitics database dating back to last May, only five show Trump ahead. Clinton averages a 10.8 percentage point lead nationwide. In the hypothetical matchup polls between Democratic nomination challenger Bernie Sanders and Trump, Sanders averages an even larger lead: 16.5 points. With one of the parties having won a third straight White House term only once since 1952, history suggests an advantage for the Republicans this year. But Trump, with his insurgent, outsider campaigncomplete with bombastic and denigrating statements against Mexicans, Muslims and womenhas turned that narrative on its head. There is no doubt that Donald Trump has tilted the election from what was one slightly leaning to the Republicans to now one thats slightly leaning to the Democrats, George Washington Universitys Lara Brown said.