Advertisement WMUR Poll: Clinton holds 11 percentage point lead over Trump in battleground NH Independents favor Libertarian Johnson over Democrat, Republican Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is back on top by a substantial margin over Republican Donald Trump in the battleground state of New Hampshire, with Libertarian Gary Johnson drawing substantial support, a new WMUR Granite State Poll shows.Click to watch News 9's coverage.The poll released Friday evening shows Clinton leading Trump 43 percent to 32 percent, with Johnson at 12 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 3 percent. The poll shows 5 percent of likely New Hampshire voters are undecided.In a head-to-head match-up, Clinton leads Trump 45 percent to 36 percent, while 14 percent say they would vote for another candidate and 5 percent are undecided.The University of New Hampshire Survey Center polled 559 randomly selected New Hampshire adults, including 433 likely voters, Aug. 20-28. The margin of error among likely voters is plus or minus 4.7 percent.According to the survey center, 46 percent of the likely voters polled were self-described Democrats, 39 percent considered themselves Republicans and 15 percent viewed themselves as independents.View the full poll results here.In the last WMUR Granite State Poll, conducted July 9-18, Clinton and Trump were in a dead heat, each at 37 percent, with 10 percent supporting Johnson and 5 percent for Stein.Poll director Andrew Smith noted Friday that survey center polling has shown that Clinton has led Trump by about 10 percentage points since July 2015, with the exception of the July 2016 poll, which was conducted during the Republican National Convention.“The race closed during the convention and now Clinton’s lead expanded back to where it was prior to the convention,” he said.Smith also said that it appears Johnson’s candidacy is more of a hindrance to Trump than Clinton.Another key to the Clinton lead is that while she receives the support of 88 percent of her fellow Democrats, only 71 percent of Republican are supporting Trump, Smith said.He said that since he expects more Democrats than Republicans to turn out on Election Day, “Trump is going to have to get more than 90 percent of the Republican vote in order to have a chance” in the Granite State.New Hampshire has only four electoral votes, yet it is nationally recognized as a key battleground state. Both candidates and group supporting them are advertising heavily and Trump has visited the state four times since winning the New Hampshire Republican Primary in February.Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine has been in New Hampshire twice in the past three weeks.The Democratic presidential nominee has won New Hampshire in every election since 1992, with the exception of 2000, when George W. Bush edged Al Gore by 7,211 votes. That year, third party candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader received 22,198 votes, or 3.7 percent, and some Democrats still believe Nader cost Gore the election.Had Gore won New Hampshire, he would have won the presidency.Friday’s poll showed Johnson leading substantially among the all-important New Hampshire independents. The Libertarian receives the support of 37 percent of those voters, while Clinton and Trump were each backed by 24 percent, and Stein by 2 percent, with 5 percent undecided.And in the head-to-head match-up between Clinton and Trump, 41 percent of independents said they would vote for neither candidate, and 13 percent said they did not know. Trump edged Clinton among independents, 25 percent to 20 percent.The poll clearly shows that, probably because of the clear differences between Clinton and Trump, New Hampshire voters are rapidly deciding on who they will support. Two-thirds of likely voters say they have definitely decided who they will vote for, while 15 percent are leaning toward a candidate and 19 percent are still trying to decide.Smith explained that in the so-called “horse race” question, likely voters are asked who they would support if the election were today. The percentages for the candidates include those who are leaning toward supporting each candidate, even though they may not have made a final, definite decision on who they will vote for on Nov. 8.As a result, 19 percent of likely voters have not made a final decision about who they will support on Election Day, while only 5 percent of likely voters could not say who they would vote for if the election were held today.The poll also shows a gender split. Among men, 40 percent support Trump, compared to 34 percent for Clinton, 15 percent for Johnson and 3 percent for Stein. Among women, 51 percent support Clinton, 26 percent support Trump, with 10 percent for Johnson and 4 percent for Stein.Clinton leads in all age categories, with Trump pulling close only among those who are 35 to 49 years of age.The survey center did not measure the candidates’ favorability and unfavorability ratings among likely voters in the August poll.