Donald Trump and his Republican supporters were feeling pretty good about the presidential race about a week ago at this time. The party’s national convention was highly controversial for all sorts of reasons, but there was some polling that showed the GOP nominee nevertheless benefiting from a modest bounce.
A lot can happen in a week.
Following the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton now leads Donald Trump by 8 points — 50 percent to 42 percent — up from a single-point difference last week, according to the latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll.Clinton’s gain also comes after a series of controversial comments made by the Republican nominee this past week regarding the family of a fallen American soldier and Trump’s suggestion that Russian hackers should seek out deleted Clinton emails.
A new national poll from CNN also shows Clinton receiving a big boost on the heels of the Democratic National Convention. Whereas CNN’s poll last week found Trump with a three-point lead, 48% to 45%, the former Secretary of State has turned things around in a big way, and now leads 52% to 43% in a head-to-head match-up.
Add third-party candidates to the mix, and the CNN poll shows Clinton’s advantage shrinking from nine points to eight.
These results follow on the heels of national polls from CBS News and Public Policy Polling, which put Clinton’s lead at seven and five points, respectively. Looking at the overall averages, the Democrat’s lead is now roughly six points, which is the largest advantage she’s enjoyed since late June.
Meanwhile, there are some notable state-based polls, with Clinton leading in Pennsylvania, and trailing slightly in Georgia and Utah.
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."