--- description: Mike Pence touted a new poll where he and Donald Trump are leading Hillary Clinton, saying it shows Republican voters "coming home." title: Mike Pence on New Polls: Republicans Are 'Coming Home' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba8f9d1f12f6854c/6988ac81cf40a81178c45639/mike-pence-donald-trump-polls.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Donald Trump](/tag/donald-trump/) ## Donald Trump Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Mike Pence on New Polls: Republicans Are 'Coming Home'  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 1, 2016 4:23 PM CUT  Mike Pence welcomes Donald Trump to the stage during a campaign event in Valley Forge, Penn. on Nov. 1, 2016. Mike Pence welcomes Donald Trump to the stage during a campaign event in Valley Forge, Penn. on Nov. 1, 2016.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 1, 2016 4:23 PM CUT —Mike Pence touted a new poll where he and Donald Trump are leading Hillary Clinton, saying it shows Republican voters “coming home.” Data shows he may have a point. Speaking at a campaign stop in Valley Forge, Penn., Tuesday, the Republican vice presidential nominee said that “the latest polls have Donald Trump leading nationwide in the race for president of the United States. Democrats and independents are joining this movement. Republicans across the country are coming home.” Pence was likely referring to a new [ABC News/Washington _Post_ tracking poll](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-leads-clinton-point-poll-enthusiasm-declines/story?id=43199459 "undefined"), which showed [Trump beating Clinton by 1 point](http://time.com/4552904/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-abc-washington-post-poll/?xid=homepage "undefined"). The only other time Trump has led Clinton in this poll was in May, shortly after he sewed up the Republican nomination. The new poll does show some evidence for Pence’s thesis. The survey found that independents now back Trump 54 percent over 25 percent for Clinton. Trump has made small gains in Democrats, from 5 percent up to 9 percent, and he’s also seen a consolidation of support from Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, 86 percent of whom now back him, up 6 percentage points from the last poll. Pence also said of the polls, “The momentum is on our side.” Here, he may be referring to the enthusiasm gap found in the data. Trump leads Clinton by 8 points among voters who are very enthusiastic about their choice, while strong enthusiasm for Clinton has dropped 7 points since the start of tracking. But ABC reports that enthusiasm is low for both candidates compared to past elections. Trump’s 1-point lead is within the survey’s 3 point margin of error. The results were based on phone calls to a random sample of 1,128 likely voters between Oct. 27-30. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4553385/mike-pence-donald-trump-poll-republicans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4553385/mike-pence-donald-trump-poll-republicans/"},"headline":"Mike Pence on New Polls: Republicans Are 'Coming Home'","datePublished":"2016-11-01T16:23:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:33:10.520Z","description":"Mike Pence touted a new poll where he and Donald Trump are leading Hillary Clinton, saying it shows Republican voters \"coming home.\"","url":"https://time.com/4553385/mike-pence-donald-trump-poll-republicans/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic","Polls","Polling","Mike Pence"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba8f9d1f12f6854c/6988ac81cf40a81178c45639/mike-pence-donald-trump-polls.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/bltba8f9d1f12f6854c/6988ac81cf40a81178c45639/mike-pence-donald-trump-polls.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump And Mike Pence Campaign Together In Pennsylvania","caption":"Donald Trump And Mike Pence Campaign Together In Pennsylvania","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4553385/mike-pence-donald-trump-poll-republicans/","name":"Mike Pence on New Polls: Republicans Are 'Coming Home'"}}]}] ```