Clinton unfavorable numbers highest in 14 years

Hillary Clinton is seeing her highest unfavorability ratings in 14 years, according to the latest CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday.

Just 46 percent said they view the Democratic presidential front-runner favorably, compared to 50 percent who said they have an unfavorable view. In the preceding April survey, Clinton polled with 53 percent favorable, compared to 44 percent unfavorable.


Despite holding a commanding lead among declared and potential Democratic opponents, the public has not viewed Clinton this unfavorably since March 2001, when the former first lady was in her third month as a New York senator. Just 44 percent said they had a favorable view of Clinton at that time, with 53 percent seeing her in an unfavorable light.

Clinton grabbed 60 percent of the primary field among Democrats and independent-leaning Democrats, with Vice President Joe Biden, who has not declared an intention to run, a distant second with 14 percent and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 10 percent. Sanders officially launched his campaign as a Democrat late last month.

Voters are also skeptical about Clinton in other ways — they are split on whether she “inspires confidence” (49 percent say that applies to her, 50 percent do not) and on whether she “cares about people like you” (47 percent say it applies, 52 percent it does not apply).

Consistent with other polls on the issue, just 42 percent say they think the former secretary of state is “honest and trustworthy,” compared with 57 percent who say they do not.

At the same time, 61 percent responded that emails being released by the State Department from her time at Foggy Bottom will not show that she did anything wrong in that capacity.

The CNN poll was conducted May 29-31 among 1,025 Americans via land lines and cellphones, carrying an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Among Democrats and leaners, the sampling error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

A separate poll released Tuesday by The Washington Post and ABC News found that Clinton’s favorability was 45 percent, the lowest in that survey since April 2008, when she was in the midst of a tough primary fight with Barack Obama.