Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has narrowed the gap in critical swing state Pennsylvania, due largely to increasingly hostile views against his opponent.
Multiple polls indicate Hillary Clinton still holds a solid lead in the Keystone State. However, her negatives are surging.
Franklin & Marshall College's latest measure of the election shows a stunning plunge in Clinton's "net favorability," or the difference between voters who view her positively against those who view her negatively. The gap in the F&M poll went from -2 after the Democratic convention to -16 in the poll taken from Aug. 25-29.
The poll shows an even bigger gap than at the national level, where Clinton's favorability is at -13.3, according to the Real Clear Politics average.
Overall in Pennsylvania, Democrat Clinton holds a 7-point advantage over Trump among likely voters, down from the 11-point lead after her party's convention in late July. The margin is even closer among registered voters, where the edge is just 4 points, at 47 percent to 43 percent.
Both candidates have made multiple stops in the state recently to shore up support.
To be sure, voters in the state are less than enamored with the Republican as well.
Trump's favorability rating is even worse than Clinton's at -21, due to the 58 percent of voters who view him negatively. The only bright side for the billionaire businessman is that the share who view him negatively dropped from 62 percent in the previous poll. Clinton's negatives were at 54 percent, up from 49 percent in the July reading.
"There hasn't been an election in modern history where both candidates are this unpopular," G. Terry Madonna, poll director and political analyst at F&M, told the Scranton Times-Tribune.
A representative for Clinton declined to comment. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for reaction.
Other numbers are fairly even: Clinton holds a 38 percent to 37 percent edge in terms of favorability among registered voters, while 75 percent of Democrats hold a positive view of her compared to 73 percent of Republicans who feel the same about Trump.
The F&M poll surveyed 736 registered voters — 358 Democrats, 286 Republicans and 92 independents — and had a sampling error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points. Democrats outnumber Republicans in Pennsylvania by about 57 percent to 43 percent, not including independents, so the F&M party sampling is about in line with the state's party breakdown.
The results also were fairly in line with what other polls are showing.
A Monmouth University poll this seek showed Clinton holding an 8-point edge in Pennsylvania.
Nationally, Clinton leads Trump by just 3.9 points in a four-way race, according to the Real Clear Politics average. In a two-race, she is up 4.9 points. Until recently, the RCP average had Clinton up about 9 points in Pennsylvania.