Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump in Florida and Pennsylvania has disappeared, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
Trump leads Clinton by 3 points, 42-39 percent among voters in Florida. Last month, Clinton led Trump in the Sunshine State by 8 points, 47-39.
Trump leads Clinton 43-41 in Pennsylvania, where Clinton had a 42-41 lead a month earlier.
The two candidates are still tied in Ohio with 41 percent each. The pair also tied last month, 40-40.
When third-party candidates are included in the poll questions, Trump’s leads expands in all three states.
In Florida, Trump garners 41 percent to Clinton’s 36 percent. Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson rakes in 7 percent and the Green Party’s Jill Stein gets 4 percent.
In Pennsylvania, Trump leads by 6 points over Clinton, 40-34, while Johnson has 9 percent and Stein takes in 3 percent support.
And in Ohio, Trump takes a narrow lead over Clinton, 37-36, while Johnson wins 7 percent and Stein takes 6 percent.
“Donald Trump enters the Republican Convention on a small roll in the three most important swing states in the country. He has wiped out Hillary Clinton’s lead in Florida; is on the upside of too-close to call races in Florida and Pennsylvania and is locked in a dead heat in Ohio,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
According to Brown, Clinton’s drop could be attributed to the email scandal. While the FBI ruled out criminal charges, it said Clinton did in fact send classified information in her personal, non-secure email system while she was secretary of state.
Voters still say Clinton is more intelligent than Trump and that she is better prepared to be president. But Clinton has lost her wide lead over Trump for having “higher moral standards.”
Trump has also seen his lead over Clinton grow on the question of who is more honest and trustworthy.
The poll was conducted June 30-11 via landline and cellphones. In Florida, 1,015 voters were surveyed with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. In Ohio, 955 voters were surveyed with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points; and in Pennsylvania the margin of error for 982 voters surveyed was 3.1 percentage points.
