Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump among both men (44 percent to 41 percent) and women (55 percent to 35 percent). | AP Photo Poll: Clinton leads by 12 points

Hillary Clinton has opened up a 12-point advantage over Donald Trump following their final debate last week and has reached the critical 50-percent mark, according to a new poll released Sunday.

Clinton’s 50-percent-to-38-percent lead over Trump in the first ABC News tracking poll, which is based on interviews conducted Thursday through Saturday, represents a swing from an ABC News/Washington Post poll following the second Clinton-Trump debate, which showed Clinton ahead by just 4 points, 47 percent to 43 percent.


Support for the two third-party candidates on the ballot in most states, Libertarian Gary Johnson (5 percent) and Green Party nominee Jill Stein (2 percent), is unchanged from the previous poll.

A gender gap persists, but Clinton leads Trump among both men (44 percent to 41 percent) and women (55 percent to 35 percent).

Trump has only a slight advantage among white voters, 47 percent to 43 percent, with the education gap continuing to drive white voters’ perceptions of the race. Trump has a 19-point lead with white voters without a college degree, 55 percent to 36 percent. But white college graduates lean toward Clinton, 52 percent to 36 percent.

Overlaying both education and gender among white voters, Trump has a 31-point lead among white men without a college degree, 60 percent to 29 percent. But Clinton leads by 32 points among white women with a degree, 62 percent to 30 percent.

Clinton has a large advantage with nonwhite voters, 68 percent to 14 percent, though the poll also shows Johnson and Stein winning a combined 11 percent of the nonwhite vote.

Clinton is winning a larger percentage of Democratic voters (89 percent) than Trump is among Republicans (83 percent). Independents tilt slightly toward the Democrat, 45 percent to 37 percent.

Likely voters panned Trump’s refusal to say he will honor the results of the election, win or lose. Only 29 percent approve of Trump indicating he may not accept the election outcome, while 65 percent disapprove, including a 53-percent majority who strongly disapprove. Just over a third of Republicans, 34 percent, disapprove of Trump’s statement, but 91 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of independents disapprove.

And just 39 percent of likely voters think Clinton winning through vote fraud is a legitimate concern, while a 59-percent majority say Trump “is trying to make excuses in case he loses the election.” Only 23 percent of Republicans think Trump is trying to make excuses, however.

The first ABC News tracking poll surveyed 874 likely voters — with 36 percent of the likely voters identifying as Democrats, 27 percent as Republicans and 31 percent as independents.