American voters dislike Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
A record 61 percent have a negative view of the likely Democratic nominee, according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday. That’s up from 58 percent in March.
Fifty-six percent have an unfavorable view of Trump — though that’s actually good news for Donald. Because it was 65 percent two months ago (that was a record high).
Thirty-seven percent have a favorable opinion of Clinton, down two points from 39 percent in March, establishing a new low. The likely Republican nominee’s favorable jumped over the same time period: 41 percent view Trump positively, up from 31 percent in March.
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“The standard for unpopular presidential candidates has been Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980, but we have two new champions,” says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Democratic pollster Chris Anderson. “Clinton and Trump rate lower than disastrous candidates like Mondale or Dole.”
Among women, one in three views Trump positively (33 percent), while nearly twice as many view him negatively (63 percent). That’s little changed — even going back to last fall. He was underwater by more than 30 points among women in September: 31-62 percent.
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It’s a different story among self-identified Republican women. The poll finds they are almost twice as likely to have a positive opinion of Trump. And it keeps improving. Currently, 65 percent of GOP women view him favorably, up from 55 percent in March — and 49 percent in September. Thirty-one percent view him negatively today.
For comparison, Trump’s net -30 rating among women is better than Clinton’s net -44 rating among men (27 favorable vs. 71 unfavorable). She even has a net negative rating among women: 46 favorable vs. 53 unfavorable.
Voters like their current president more than either of those most likely to replace him. Half have a favorable opinion of Barack Obama (50 favorable vs. 47 unfavorable).
Currently, 48 percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing as president, while 49 percent disapprove. A month ago it was 49-47 percent.
The View among Partisans
Clinton receives a 74 percent favorable rating among Democrats. It’s about the same for Trump among Republicans — 72 percent. That’s up significantly from 55 percent in March.
Those ratings seem perfectly fine, until compared to Obama. Democrats give him an 80-point net positive rating: 89 percent favorable vs. 9 percent unfavorable.
Twenty-three percent of independents view Clinton favorably. And although majorities have unfavorable views of Trump, his favorability among independents (40 percent) is comparable to Obama’s (42 percent).
Republicans rate House Speaker Paul Ryan positively with a 51-26 percent rating. Another 23 percent can’t rate him.
Overall views are mixed on Ryan: 36 percent favorable vs. 36 percent unfavorable. More than one voter in four either has no opinion (11 percent) or has never heard of the 2012 Republican vice-presidential candidate (17 percent).
Pollpourri
Voters view the Democratic Party more positively than the GOP.
Opinion of the Republican Party is upside down by 13 points (40 favorable vs. 53 unfavorable), while the Democratic Party is in negative territory by two (47 favorable vs. 49 unfavorable).
Part of that comes from in-house: 90 percent of Democrats have a favorable opinion of their party, while just 72 percent of Republicans say the same about the GOP.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,021 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from May 14-17, 2016. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.
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