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Both Clinton, Trump have low favorable ratings: Gallup

Xinhua, September 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

After sinking in August from their convention highs, the favorable ratings for U.S. presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton show little to no positive momentum, found a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

Clinton's current 38 percent favorable rating essentially ties her personal low of 37 percent, first reached during the Republican national convention in July. Trump's latest rating, at 34 percent, is just a bit better than where he stood at the close of the Democratic convention, which was 33 percent, the Aug. 31-Sept. 6 poll found.

Wednesday' s low favorable ratings for the candidates mean that their unfavorable ratings are correspondingly high: 58 percent for Clinton and 62 percent for Trump, Gallup found.

Both candidates' images changed slightly during the convention period in the second half of July, showing improvements during their own party's convention and declines during the other.

But those changes proved fleeting, and neither candidate is much better off today than before the party conventions, Gallup found.

Clinton' s rating among blacks, at 63 percent, is seven points below where it stood in the first half of July. It is also her lowest weekly favorable rating among blacks this year, after occasionally dipping to as low as 65 percent.

Trump's current 34 percent rating among adults is just slightly better than his average 32 percent rating in the first half of July -- the same as his average since January, Gallup found.

At the same time, like Clinton's, most of Trump's subgroup ratings are remarkably similar to where they were before the start of the conventions -- most within two points of his July 1-17 scores.

The one notable change for Trump is a five-point increase in his rating among Republicans, which helps account for his two-point overall increase in favorability between the two periods, Gallup found.

Clinton remains near her record-low favorability, with the added concern that her favorability is slumping among blacks.

Trump's 34 percent favorable rating is better than his 2016 low of 27 percent, recorded in April, but remains near the 32 percent to 34 percent range seen throughout August and still lags Clinton's current rating, according to Gallup.

Rather than offering a sign that voters are finally warming up to one candidate or the other, the latest ratings underscore the historic nature of this year's election as one featuring the two most unpopular nominees since scientific polls were invented, Gallup said. Endit