Hillary Clinton has emerged with a wide 9 percentage-point lead over Donald Trump after both parties' political conventions, the new NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll of the nation's registered voters shows.
Clinton draws 47 percent to 38 percent for Trump in the survey, conducted Sunday through Wednesday. That nearly doubles the 5 percentage-point lead (46 percent-41 percent) the former secretary of state held in July before either the Republican or Democratic convention.
Moreover, giving voters the option of selecting Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson or Green Party candidate Jill Stein leaves Clinton the same 9 percentage-point margin. In a four-way matchup, Clinton draws 43 percent, Trump 34 percent, Johnson 10 percent and Stein 5 percent.
That 9-point lead is higher than President Barack Obama ever held over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in 2012. Among registered voters, Obama led by 50 percent-44 percent in the NBC/WSJ point after both conventions that year.
In the survey, Clinton's lead is built on robust support among women, better-educated and minority voters. Among all women, she leads Trump by 51 percent-35 percent while nearly breaking even (43 percent-42 percent) among men. She breaks even among white women, a group Obama lost by 14 percentage points in 2012, on the strength of her double-digit advantage among those with college educations. She also splits the votes of college-educated men with Trump.
Among nonwhite voters, Clinton leads by 69 percent to 17 percent over the bombastic billionaire Republican nominee. Among African-Americans, she leads 91 percent-1 percent.
Among qualities important to voters, Clinton's experience and temperament stand out as critical assets. Trump holds a 22 percentage point edge on "changing business as usual in Washington," and smaller advantages on "dealing with the economy" (4 points), "dealing with crime" (8 points) and "standing up for America" (2 points).
But Clinton breaks even with Trump on handling terrorism and homeland security, and leads by 6 points on "changing the country for the better." She holds solid edges on "dealing with immigration" (10 points); "being a good commander-in-chief" (11 points); "improving America's standing in the world (14 points); "having the ability to handle a crisis" (18 points); "caring about people like me" (16 points); "handling foreign policy" (26 points); "dealing with racial problems" (20 points); and "having the ability to unite the country" (17 points).
The telephone poll of 800 registered voters carries a margin for error of 3.46 percentage points.