Donald Trump Up 2 Points Over Hillary Clinton in New National Poll

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has a two-point lead over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a new national poll of likely voters released Tuesday, essentially putting the two on even ground in the final push to Election Day 2016.

Among those likely to vote on Nov. 8, Trump took 45 percent to Clinton's 43 percent, according to the new CNN/ORC national survey. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson earned 7 percent, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein had 2 percent. However, among all registered voters, Clinton leads Trump by three points, 44 percent to 41 percent. Johnson took 9 percent and Stein 3 percent.

Clinton, who had a sizable lead coming out of the Democratic National Convention in July, has slowly lost her advantage as her email server scandal has continued to haunt her and new revelations about the relationship between the Clinton Foundation and her work as secretary of state have come to light.

On the quality of honesty, Clinton's backers express greater skepticism about their candidate than do Trump supporters. When asked which candidate is more honest and trustworthy, 94 percent of Trump voters say he is, while just 70 percent of those backing Clinton say she is.

Women support Clinton by 15 points (53 percent to 38 percent), while men are behind Trump by a larger margin of 22 points (54 percent to 32 percent). Among those younger than 45, Clinton leads 54 percent to 29 percent, while among those older than 45, Trump leads 54 percent to 39 percent.

While most polls still show Clinton in the lead over Trump, recent averages show that the gap is slowly closing between the two.

In recent national polling, Clinton leads head-to-head match-ups against Trump, with the Democrat holding 46.2 percent support compared to 42.9 percent for the New York businessman, according to averages compiled by RealClear Politics.

The CNN/ORC poll was conducted via landlines and cellphones from Sept. 1-4, surveying 1,001 adults with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, including 886 registered voters and 786 likely voters.

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