New Polls Show Clinton Leading In Four Crucial States

A quartet of NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls released Thursday show Hillary Clinton ahead of Donald Trump by 5 to 14 points in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, with Trump failing to break 40 percent in any of the four.

Clinton leads Trump by 14 points in Colorado, 46 percent to 32 percent, and by 13 points in Virginia, 46 percent to 33 percent. She holds a 9-point lead in North Carolina, 48 percent to 39 percent, and a smaller 5-point edge in Florida, 44 percent to 39 percent.

The surveys show Clinton expanding her lead post-convention in each of the states but Florida. She saw an especially steep rise in Colorado, where she previously led by 8 points.

Although both candidates remain deeply unpopular, Clinton’s net favorability rating rose in all four states, while Trump’s remained the same or worsened.

“These are supposed to be battleground states, but right now, they don’t look that way,” Marist polling director Lee Miringoff told NBC.

The latest numbers are largely in line with other recent surveys of the states, although they represent the best numbers to date for Clinton in Colorado and her best recent showing in North Carolina.

HuffPost Pollster’s models, which aggregate publicly available polling, reflect the closer results of earlier polls, showing Clinton ahead by margins of about 2 points in Florida, 4 points in North Carolina, 6 points in Virginia and 8 points in Colorado.

The NBC/WSJ/Marist polls were conducted Aug. 4-10, and surveyed 899 voters in Colorado, 862 voters in Florida, 921 voters in North Carolina and 897 voters in Virginia. Live interviewers called both landlines and cell phones.