A new poll gives Hillary Clinton a double-digit lead in Virginia. | AP Photo Poll shows Clinton remains strong in Virginia with 12-point lead

A new poll out of Virginia shows Hillary Clinton with a 12-point lead over Donald Trump, reaffirming that the state until recently considered a major battleground is trending solidly toward the Democrat’s column.

In a matchup including third-party candidates, 45 percent of likely voters surveyed support Clinton, while 33 percent said they will vote for Trump, the Republican nominee. Eight percent of those surveyed indicated support for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, 1 percent for the Green Party’s Jill Stein and 3 percent for Evan McMullin, an independent conservative candidate focusing his campaign on Utah. Two percent said they remain undecided, and 5 percent indicated that they support none of the candidates.


The survey, administered by the Wason Center for Public Policy from Oct. 16 to 19, shows a slight uptick in support for both Clinton and Trump since the group released a version of the same poll last week, while fewer likely voters in Virginia are flocking to third-party candidates.

Clinton polled at 44 percent and Trump at 29 percent in the group’s previous survey, while Johnson had earned 11 percent of likely voters’ support. The survey suggests that Johnson’s decline in support is a result of independent voters “slowly edging” toward Clinton; 44 percent said they support her.

Quentin Kidd, director of the Wason Center, said in an accompanying news release that the poll results show Trump “appears to have recovered a little” since the release of a damaging tape that showed him bragging about sexual assault. Still, Kidd was not optimistic about Trump’s chances of overcoming his polling deficit before Election Day.

“His reach continues to be no higher than the mid-30s,” Kidd said. “That ceiling is far too low to win, especially as Clinton’s share continues to rise.”

The Watson Center reports that Clinton’s lead in her stronghold of Northern Virginia has grown larger. She nets the support of 57 percent of likely voters there, compared with Trump’s 21 percent. Trump still leads Clinton in the southwest part of the state, 51 percent to 30 percent.

Clinton also continues to earn the support of more white college-educated voters, a group that often trends toward Republicans but Trump has had trouble courting nationwide. The Democratic nominee leads in that group by 8 points, 41 percent to Trump’s 33 percent.

Trump is also trailing Clinton among voters of both genders in Virginia. Women prefer Clinton to Trump by a margin of 22 points, 47 percent to 25 percent, while Clinton beats Trump among male voters by 1 point, 42 percent to 41 percent.

The poll surveyed 834 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.