--- title: Hillary Clinton Surging Ahead of Donald Trump in Key States description: Hillary Clinton is widening her lead over Donald Trump in key battleground states, a new poll found. canonical: https://time.com/4450362/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll-swing-states/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-12T16:06:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:42:37.547Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Surging Ahead of Donald Trump in Key States og:description: Hillary Clinton is widening her lead over Donald Trump in key battleground states, a new poll found. og:url: https://time.com/4450362/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll-swing-states/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8738bd488406465/6988a228f887dc492fe970c1/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-DEMOCRATS-CLINTON og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Surging Ahead of Donald Trump in Key States twitter:description: Hillary Clinton is widening her lead over Donald Trump in key battleground states, a new poll found. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8738bd488406465/6988a228f887dc492fe970c1/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Clinton Surging Ahead of Trump in Battleground States, Polls Show > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9451a1b5-f813-4923-803b-025541c0935c&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Hillary Clinton Lays Out Economic Plan [Watch (HLS stream): Hillary Clinton Lays Out Economic Plan](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FiRS8pAm.m3u8) (1:32)  _Published 2016-08-11. Hillary Clinton laid out her economic agenda on Thursday, touting her plan for tuition-free college and infrastructure spending in a sharp rebuttal to Donald Trump’s speech on the economy earlier this week._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 12, 2016 4:06 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 12, 2016 4:06 PM UTC Hillary Clinton is widening her lead over Donald Trump in key battleground states, new polls have found. [According to four new NBC/WSJ/Marist polls](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/polls-clinton-running-table-key-battlegrounds-n629136), Clinton is leading Trump by nine points in North Carolina. In 2008, the state narrowly went for then-Democratic nominee Barack Obama, and in 2012 it reversed and went with a similarly slim margin to Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The poll also found that Clinton is leading Trump 44% to 39% in Florida, 46% to 32% in Colorado, and 46% to 33% in Virginia, her vice presidential pick Tim Kaine’s home state. According to NBC, Clinton’s lead in Colorado grew by 6 points after the conventions. If Clinton were to win all four of these key states, it would all but shut Trump out from getting the 270 necessary electoral college votes to win. The NBC/WSJ/Marist polls were conducted from August 4-10\. They surveyed 899 registered voters in Colorado with a margin of error plus-minus 3.3 percentage points, 862 registered voters in Florida with a margin of error plus-minus 3.3 percentage points, 921 registered voters in North Carolina with a margin of error plus-minus 3.2 percentage points, and 897 registered voters in Virginia with a margin of error plus-minus 3.3 percentage points. ## Transcript I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs, or holds down wages, including the Trans Specific Partnership. << [ APPLAUSE ]. I oppose it now. I'll oppose it after the election, and I'll oppose it as president. The answer is not to rant and rave, or cut ourselves off from the world. That would end up killing even more jobs. The answer is to finally make trade work for us, not against us. Then there is Trump's tax plan. He would give trillions in tax cuts to big corporations, millionaires, and Wall Street money managers. That would explode our national debt and eventually lead To massive cuts in priorities like education, health care, and environmental protection. Now it's true that both of us have proposed to cut taxes for middle class families. He's making a big promise, but his advisors have said, his own advisors have said, he may not stand by them. Instead the tax cuts he doubled down on in his speech in Detroit on Monday offered trillions to the richest Americans and corporations. And one of the differences between Donald Trump and me, is I'm telling you what I will do. I'm laying out my plans and I will stand by them and want you to hold me accountable for delivering results. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4450362/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll-swing-states/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4450362/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll-swing-states/"},"headline":"Clinton Surging Ahead of Trump in Battleground States, Polls Show","datePublished":"2016-08-12T16:06:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-07T06:42:37.547Z","description":"Hillary Clinton is widening her lead over Donald Trump in key battleground states, a new poll found.","url":"https://time.com/4450362/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll-swing-states/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8738bd488406465/6988a228f887dc492fe970c1/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8738bd488406465/6988a228f887dc492fe970c1/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-DEMOCRATS-CLINTON","caption":"Hillary Clinton addresses supporters during a rally at the Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Fla., on Aug. 8, 2016.","creditText":"Gregg Newton—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4450362/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll-swing-states/","name":"Clinton Surging Ahead of Trump in Battleground States, Polls Show"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Hillary Clinton Lays Out Economic Plan","description":"Hillary Clinton laid out her economic agenda on Thursday, touting her plan for tuition-free college and infrastructure spending in a sharp rebuttal to Donald Trump’s speech on the economy earlier this week.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FiRS8pAm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-08-11T20:03:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FiRS8pAm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4450362/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll-swing-states/","duration":"PT1M32S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4450362/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-poll-swing-states/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```