Hillary Clinton’s once formidable lead over Donald Trump in national and battleground polls is evaporating.
Trump has pulled into the lead in Florida and Ohio, two crucial states where he has trailed Clinton for most of the race, and several states that once looked out of reach for Trump — Colorado and Virginia, among them — suddenly appear competitive.
One survey showed Trump swinging to a lead in Nevada, a state that President Obama carried with ease during both of his presidential campaigns. And a poll of Iowa, which has only gone for the GOP nominee once in the last seven elections, found Trump ahead by 8 points.
The swing in national polls is equally dramatic.
While Clinton led Trump by an average of 7.6 percentage points one month ago, her advantage is now down to a meager 1.8 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics average.
“No question there’s a movement toward Trump right now,” said Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray. “When the media is focused on one candidate over the other, it’s generally negative. The media has been focused on Clinton and her health, and Trump smartly did not try to steal the limelight from her.”
The shift in the polls comes amid a brutal stretch for Clinton, who started last weekend by lumping half of Trump’s supporters into a “basket of deplorables” and then suffered a dramatic health scare while leaving a 9/11 memorial in New York City, only to later reveal a pneumonia diagnosis.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/polls/296189-polls-darken-for-democrats