US polls 2016: Donald Trump beats Hillary Clinton in new poll

Washington, May 19: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has for the first time edged out his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a latest poll even as majority of respondents have an high unfavorable opinion of both the aspirants.

This is for the first time in a poll that Trump is seen ahead of Clinton, albeit within a margin of error. Fox News, in its latest national polls, found that Trump has the support of 45 per cent of the potential general election votes, while Clinton has the support of 42 per cent.

Trump emerged as the presumptive nominee of the Republican party after winning the Indian elections early this month. He is the only GOP candidate left in the race, which early this year was crowded with 16 more White House aspirants including well established Senators and Governors.

Clinton, however, is yet to clinch the nomination as her sole rival Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont is giving a tough fight by winning a number of States and preventing her from acquiring enough delegate to become the presumptive nominee.

Sanders, according to the Fox News, is still ahead of Trump. In a hypothetical match up, Sanders has support of 46 per cent of the respondents as against 42 per cent for Trump, Fox News said. However, a key highlight of the latest poll is the high unfavorable view of both Trump (56 per cent) and Clinton (61 per cent).

Earlier Clinton's negative rating was 58 per cent and Trump's was at 65 per cent. "The standard for unpopular presidential candidates has been Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980, but we have two new champions," said Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Democratic pollster Chris Anderson.

"Clinton and Trump rate lower than disastrous candidates like Mondale or Dole," he said. Trump leads Clinton by 55 to 31 per cent among whites.

On the other hand Clinton has a commanding lead over Trump when it comes to black (90 to seven per cent) and Hispanics (62 to 23 per cent). Fox News had surveyed 1021 registered voters between May 14-17.

PTI