Clinton leads the presidential race by 50 percent to 42 percent in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll of registered voters. | Getty National poll: Clinton, surging among women, leads Trump by 8

Hillary Clinton has opened an 8-point lead over Donald Trump after both parties' conventions, according to a new national poll.

Powered by boosts in support from women, Catholics and the college-educated, Clinton leads the presidential race by 50 percent to 42 percent in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll of registered voters — up from 4 percentage points in mid-July.


Among likely voters, Clinton bests Trump 51 to 44 percent. When Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein are included, Clinton leads Trump 45 to 37 with registered voters, followed by 8 percent for Johnson and 4 percent for Stein.

Seventy-three percent of those surveyed, including 59 percent of Republicans, said they disapprove of Trump's recent feud with the Khans, parents of a Muslim-American Army captain killed in Iraq in 2004.

Clinton has opened a wide lead among women in particular — 58 percent to his 35 percent. Among college-educated women, she leads Trump by 19 percentage points, 57 percent to 38 percent.

Trump leads Clinton by 10 points among men, 51 percent to 41 percent. But Clinton is leading by 6 points among college-educated whites, a group typically won by Republicans. She also has picked up support among Catholics, a key swing vote in recent elections, 51 percent to 45 percent.

The poll also highlight's Trump's struggles in consolidating the GOP behind his candidacy — he has the support of just 83 percent of Republicans, compared with 92 percent of Democrats for Clinton. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, 86 percent now support Clinton; Trump, in contrast, has the backing of only 74 percent of Republicans and leaners who preferred another candidate in the GOP primary.

Clinton has also seen a modest uptick in favorability since the previous survey, moving from 42 percent to 48 percent. Her unfavorability rating, while still high, is now 50 percent, down from a peak of 55 percent in June.

The poll was conducted by landline phones and cellphones from Aug. 1-4 in English and Spanish, using a random national sample of 1,002 adults that included 815 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for the full sample, and plus or minus 4 percentage points for the registered voter sample.