Hillary Clinton’s favorable rating has sunk to a new low as that of her 2016 rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has doubled since March.
A Gallup poll released Friday demonstrates that the share of Americans with a favorable view of Clinton has declined from 48 percent in April when she first announced her presidential campaign to 43 percent today.
Meanwhile, Sanders is enjoying an incredible surge; the Vermont senator’s favorable rating has doubled since Gallup tested it in March, jumping from 12 to 24 percent.
Unfortunately for Clinton, her unfavorable rating has been rising. The share of Americans holding an unfavorable view of Clinton has ticked up to 46 percent, meaning that more U.S. adults view the former secretary of state negatively than positively. This represents Clinton’s worst net favorable rating since December 2007.
Moreover, a larger percentage of Americans view Clinton negatively than do any of her 2016 Democratic competitors. Sanders has an unfavorable rating of 20 percent, while former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee have unfavorable ratings of 12, 13 and 11 percent, respectively.
Of course, all of Clinton’s competitors remain unknown to enormous shares of the population, rendering the majority of Americans unable to describe their opinion of the candidates one way or another.
Still Clinton’s sinking favorable rating--and Sanders’ surge--indicates trouble for the presidential candidate ahead of the primary, especially as the former secretary of state continues to grapple with her ongoing private email controversy.