Polls: Clinton trails GOP in swing states In Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, the former secretary of state trails in hypothetical general-election matchups with three Republican candidates.

Hillary Clinton is in trouble in three key swing states, according to new Quinnipiac University polls released Wednesday.

In Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, the former secretary of state trails in hypothetical general-election matchups with three leading Republican candidates: former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.


Clinton trails Rubio in Colorado, 38 percent to 46 percent; in Iowa, 36 percent to 44 percent; and in Virginia, 41 percent to 43 percent.

Matched up with Bush, Clinton trails 36 percent to 41 percent in Colorado; 36 percent to 42 percent in Iowa; and 39 percent to 42 percent in Virginia.

Clinton is also behind Walker in Colorado, 38 percent to 47 percent; in Iowa, 37 percent to 45 percent; and in Virginia, 40 percent to 43 percent.

The polls — which show Clinton trailing despite national surveys that give her an early lead over GOP hopefuls — found Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Vice President Joe Biden similarly behind the three Republican candidates in hypothetical matchups.

Voters in all three states gave Clinton low marks for honesty and trustworthiness, with 62 percent of Colorado voters saying she is not honest or trustworthy, compared to only 34 percent who think she is. In Iowa (59 percent to 33 percent) and Virginia (55 percent to 39 percent), Clinton earned similarly low numbers.

But those numbers are not quite as bad when compared to those of Donald Trump, who polled negative favorability of almost 2-to-1 in all three states (Quinnipiac did not test Clinton-Trump general-election matchups, despite his current standing in primary polls). Trump is at the bottom for Virginia voters, while at the top are retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (+11 net points), Walker (+10 points), Rubio (+7 points) and former Sen. Jim Webb (+7 points). Bush’s net favorability score is +4.

In Iowa, however, Clinton’s net favorability is only 2 points better than Trump’s. Walker polled favorably in the Hawkeye State (+15 points).

In addition to having the highest net favorability in Virginia, Carson also came out on top in Colorado (+16 points), along with Rubio (+11 points) and Walker (+10 points). But Bush’s net-favorabilty score is -15. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, meanwhile, is at the bottom in voters’ net favorability in the state, at -30 points, while Trump sits at -27 points.

The polls were conducted via live interviewers calling land lines and cell phones from July 9-20, surveying 1,231 Colorado voters, 1,236 Iowa voters, and 1,209 Virginia voters, with each sample carrying a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.