NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Democrat Hillary Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump by 10 points among likely Virginia voters, according to a poll released Monday by the Watson Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University.
The poll was conducted Sept. 15-23 and surveyed 1,003 likely Virginia voters.
The results show Clinton leading Trump 48-38 percent, in a two-way race. In a full ballot test, Clinton remained in the lead over Trump, but by a smaller margin of only 39-33 percent. Libertarian Gary Johnson picked up 15 percent of the vote while Green candidate Jill Stein and Independent candidate Evan McMullin picked up 3 percent each.
The poll found Clinton to be preferred by female voters by a 28-point margin, 57-29 percent, while male voters preferred Trump by a 12-percent margin, 49-37 percent.
Clinton also led the way among voters in non-military households, 50-36 percent. However, Trump was preferred over Clinton in military households, 46-41 percent.
Clinton leads among college-educated white voters, 45-40 percent, a group the Republican Party nominee has carried in every presidential election since 1956. However, Trump has a commanding lead among non-college educated white voters, 64- 24 percent.
“Clinton’s lead over Trump in Virginia is very strong,” said Dr. Quentin Kidd, Director of the Wason Center. “It is not only built upon her own partisan identifiers, but also on a very strong showing from vote-rich Northern Virginia, a large gender gap, and stronger support than Democrats usually get from college-educated white voters and white women.”
The poll also found that 53 percent of voters think Trump is racist. This view is most strongly expressed by women (65%), Millennials (71%), and African Americans (84%).
A majority of voters also say that they think Clinton cannot be trusted with classified information. This view is strongly held by military voters (64%), white men (67%), white voters without a college education (74%), Millennials (60%), and Independents (68%).
The margin of error of the survey is +/- 3.9% at the 95% level of confidence.
