16-point lead

Poll: Clinton opens up 16-point lead in Virginia

By NICK GASS

Hillary Clinton has blown open a 16-point lead over Donald Trump in Virginia, according to the results of the latest Roanoke College poll of likely voters in the battleground state out Tuesday.

Matched against Trump and the other two major third-party candidates, Clinton earned 48 percent support to the Republican nominee's 32 percent. Another 8 percent said they would vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson, while Jill Stein of the Green Party took 3 percent, with another 9 percent undecided. In a head-to-head race, Clinton leads Trump by 19 points—55 percent to 36 percent.

Asked whether their backing of either major candidate is more because of their support of either Clinton or Trump or their disdain for the alternative, a plurality of Clinton voters (49 percent for Clinton to 38 percent against Trump) suggested the former, while the reverse held for Trump voters (49 percent against Clinton to 35 percent for Trump).

Likely voters preferred Clinton on all issues asked, including on the economy (50 percent to 43 percent), dealing with terrorism (55 percent to 43 percent), health care (57 percent to 33 percent), improving race relations (66 percent to 21 percent), immigration (56 percent to 36 percent) and foreign policy (64 percent to 28 percent). Clinton held a narrower margin of support over Trump on gun-related issues, with 47 percent preferring her and 43 percent for Trump.

The Roanoke College poll shows Clinton with a larger lead than many other surveys of the state. Clinton leads Trump by double digits in the POLITICO Battleground States Polling Average for Virginia, 48.8 percent to 37.8 percent, having drawn similar levels of support in other reliable polls conducted over the last month. Clinton led Trump by 12 points in a comparable Quinnipiac University survey conducted Aug. 9-16, and held an eight-point advantage in a Washington Post poll taken between Aug. 11 and 14. In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey conducted Aug. 4-10, Clinton led by 7 points.

Roanoke College surveyed 803 likely voters between Aug. 7-17, a few days longer than the other recent polls, carrying an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.