Poll: Hillary Clinton Holds Lopsided Lead Over Donald Trump in California

LOS ANGELES, CA — A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll of registered voters released this week found that Hillary Clinton holds a lopsided lead over Donald Trump in Democrat Party-dominated California, but weaknesses with younger voters suggest problems that could thwart her campaign in more contested states.

Clinton led Trump by 25 points, 58 percent to 33 percent, when the two candidates were matched head to head in the poll, The Times reported.

When the choices were expanded to include Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, Clinton lost more support than Trump, and the gap between the two narrowed to 20 points. Johnson picked up 11 percent and Stein 6 percent.

"In a state that is more closely contested than California, the Johnson and Stein candidacies have a potential to cause a problem for Clinton," poll director Dan Schnur, who heads USC’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, told The Times. "Out here, it’s probably not going to make a difference."

Trump appears to have no shot at moving California and its 55 electoral votes into contested territory, as he had said he would, according to The Times. Indeed, he creates a significant drag on Republicans down the ballot here.

In every part of the state, voters said they would be less inclined to side with a congressional candidate who had endorsed Trump; statewide, 40 percent said they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate, and 15 percent said they would be more likely.

— City News Service, photo credit: Alexander Nguyen, Patch