Hillary Clinton's Wisconsin lead over Donald Trump is shrinking
A poll from Marquette University found that, in a four-way race that includes Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, Clinton is ahead of Trump by 3 points among likely voters. In early August, Clinton was up 13 points on Trump in the same four-way poll.
Another poll, this one from Monmouth University, showed similar results, with Clinton up 5 points on Trump in a four-way race.
"After a strong bump in Clinton's favor following the national party conventions, the electorate in Wisconsin has returned to about where the vote stood in July, prior to the conventions," said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll and Professor of Law and Public Policy.
The Marquette poll showed that Clinton's favorability has dropped off considerably while Trump's already dismal mark stagnated. Clinton was viewed favorably by 35% of respondents, while 63% viewed her unfavorably. In early August, the poll showed that 43% of Wisconsin voters viewed the Democratic nominee favorably, while 53% held unfavorable views of her. By comparison, Trump's favorability improved 1 point from early August, going from 27% to 28%.
In 2012, President Barack Obama defeated former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by 7 points in the Badger State.
"The current presidential election race in Wisconsin is looking a lot like the 2012 contest right now," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
The Marquette poll surveyed 803 registered Wisconsin voters by landline and cell phone from August 25 through August 28. The margin of error is 4.5 percentage points. The Monmouth poll was conducted over landlines and cell phones from August 27 to August 30, using a sample of 404 likely Wisconsin voters. The margin of error for that poll was 4.9 percentage points.