From the midweek edition of the Morning Jolt:
A Basket Full of Favorable Polls for Trump
Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton by 5 percentage points in a Bloomberg Politics poll of Ohio, a gap that underscores the Democrat’s challenges in critical Rust Belt states after one of the roughest stretches of her campaign.
The Republican nominee leads Clinton 48 percent to 43 percent among likely voters in a two-way contest and 44 percent to 39 percent when third-party candidates are included.
The poll was conducted Friday through Monday, meaning the news cycle during the polling period included her “basket of deplorables” controversy and part of the poll covered the time period when her health problem was in the news.
Also, get ready to give Rob Portman the MVP this year. His race was supposed to be a nail-biter:
Another Republican, Senator Rob Portman, holds a commanding lead of 53 percent to 36 percent over former Democratic Governor Ted Strickland in the state’s U.S. Senate contest. The incumbent leads with a ratio of more than 2-to-1 among independents and is even getting 14 percent from Democrats and those who lean that way.
Meanwhile, up in Maine, Trump has a really good shot at getting at least one of Maine’s electoral votes. He’s down three statewide according to a new Boston Globe poll, but remember that Maine gives an electoral vote to whoever wins each congressional district, and right now, Trump is up 10 in the Second Congressional District. If the Election Day results shake out this way, Clinton will win the state overall but get three electoral votes and Trump will get one.
What’s more, Texas looks reasonably safe, at least for now. The new Emerson poll puts Trump up by 6 points. (This is a state Romney won by 16 and McCain won by 12, so it’s still a mildly bad sign to see a GOP nominee with a single-digit lead.)