AP-GfK poll shows people trust Clinton more on most issues

Sep 23, 2016 | 6:00 AM

WASHINGTON — Americans are more likely to trust Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump to handle a variety of issues facing the country, even when it comes to national security topics that have been a major focus of his campaign, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

Trump is trusted slightly more than Clinton on just one key issue: job creation.

A closer look at the poll results:

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CLINTON’S ADVANTAGES

According to the AP-GfK poll, American voters say they trust Clinton more than Trump by large margins to handle health care, 42 per cent to 29 per cent, and race relations, 48 per cent to 20 per cent. By a 40 per cent to 33 per cent margin, more trust the former secretary of state to handle negotiating with Russia.

Clinton has slimmer edges on filling Supreme Court vacancies, 39 per cent to 34 per cent, and handling international trade, 40 per cent to 34 per cent.

The Democratic nominee is also slightly more trusted to handle immigration, 42 per cent to 38 per cent.

The poll shows immigration issues are particularly important to Trump’s supporters. They’re far more likely than Clinton’s supporters to call immigration a very or extremely important issue, 79 per cent to 51 per cent.

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NO TRUMP EDGE ON SECURITY

Despite a focus on national security, Trump has no apparent edge over Clinton on the issue. Voters are closely split on which candidate would better handle protecting the country, with 40 per cent trusting Clinton more and 37 per cent trusting Trump more. They’re evenly divided on who would better handle the threat posed by the Islamic State group, with 38 per cent saying they trust each candidate.

Clinton has a big edge over Trump on who would do a better job handling the U.S. image abroad, 47 per cent to 27 per cent.

Trump’s supporters are much more likely than Clinton’s to consider the threat posed by the Islamic State group to be very or extremely important to them personally, 87 per cent to 65 per cent.

More generally, the two candidates’ supporters are about equally likely to say the U.S. role in world affairs is very or extremely important, 71 per cent for Clinton’s supporters to 69 per cent for Trump’s.

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JOB CREATION GOOD FOR TRUMP

Economic issues are a relative bright spot for Trump. He is narrowly favoured as the candidate trusted more to create jobs, 39 per cent to 35 per cent. In general, voters are about equally split on which candidate would better handle the economy, 39 per cent for Trump to 38 per cent for Clinton.

It’s a good issue on which to have even a narrow advantage. Economic issues are rated as very or extremely important by 92 per cent of voters, more than say the same of the U.S. role in world affairs (68 per cent), the threat posed by the Islamic State group (70 per cent) or immigration (60 per cent).

American voters aren’t happy with the economic status quo, the poll shows. By a 55 per cent to 45 per cent margin, they’re more likely to call the economy poor than good. That’s even though they’re far more likely to say their personal financial situation is good than poor, 66 per cent to 34 per cent.

Voters are also slightly more likely to trust Trump than Clinton on handling gun laws, 39 per cent to 35 per cent.

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WHO’S A UNITER?

Americans are more likely to trust Clinton than Trump as the candidate who can unite the country, 35 per cent to 24 per cent. But just as many say they don’t trust either candidate as say they trust Clinton more.

Clinton is also seen as better able to handle working with Congress, 42 per cent to 27 per cent.

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The AP-GfK Poll of 1,694 adults, including 1,476 registered voters, was conducted online Sept. 15-19, using a sample drawn from GfK’s probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, and for registered voters is plus or minus 2.5 points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using telephone or mail survey methods and later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn’t have access to the internet were provided access for free.

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Online:

Poll results: http://ap-gfkpoll.com

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Follow AP Polling Editor Emily Swanson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/EL_Swan

Emily Swanson, The Associated Press