Poll: Clinton leads Trump in key battleground states

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has a big edge on Republican Donald Trump in Colorado and Virginia and a slimmer lead in Iowa, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

{mosads}Clinton has 50 percent support in Virginia to Trump’s 38 percent in a head-to-head matchup, according to the Quinnipiac University poll.

She also leads the businessman 49 percent to 39 percent in Colorado and 47 percent to 44 percent in Iowa.

Clinton’s leads were slightly thinner in all three states when third-party candidates were included.

“The scary thing for Republicans in the Virginia and Colorado numbers is that they show a possible Hillary Clinton landslide in states that only eight years ago leaned GOP and before that had been GOP strongholds,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement. 

Brown wrote that Colorado’s “burgeoning Hispanic population” may explain Trump’s difficulties in the state and that the growth of Democratic-leaning D.C. suburbs in Virginia has helped Clinton. 

“Colorado and Virginia are important swing states. Faced with these deficits in those states, Trump’s situation is similar to the poker player who must draw to an inside straight flush,” Brown said. 

The survey was conducted from Aug. 9 to 16 among 830 likely voters in Colorado and 846 likely voters in Iowa with a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points and among 808 likely voters in Virginia with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.