Razor-thin lead

Poll: Clinton holds razor-thin leads over Trump in Florida, North Carolina

By Louis Nelson

Hillary Clinton holds a 1-point lead in Florida and a 2-point lead in North Carolina, both swing states crucial to the White House chances for Donald Trump, in a new Quinnipiac poll of likely voters released on the eve of the election.

The former secretary of state leads the Manhattan billionaire, 46 percent to 45 percent, in Florida and 47 percent to 45 percent in North Carolina. Her advantage in both states is within the margin of error, signifying that both are more or less deadlocked with hours to go until voters head to the polls on Tuesday.

Libertarian Gary Johnson polled at 2 percent in Florida and 3 percent in North Carolina.

Both states are nearly essential for Trump if he is to secure a come-from-behind victory Tuesday. He begins with a relatively narrow path to the White House relative to Clinton and must come close to running the table in swing states in order to earn the 270 votes in the Electoral College necessary to defeat her.

North Carolina’s hotly contested Senate race is deadlocked as well, with incumbent GOP Sen. Richard Burr tied at 47 percent with Democratic challenger Deborah Ross. The Florida survey puts incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio up 7 points, 50 percent to 43 percent, over Rep. Patrick Murphy, the Democrat.

Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s Democratic attorney general who is running to unseat Gov. Pat McCrory, leads that race 50 percent to 47 percent.

The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted from Nov. 3-6, reaching 884 likely voters in Florida and 870 likely voters in North Carolina via both landlines and cell phones. The margin of error in both states was plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.