PTI, Washington :Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has for the first time edged out his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a latest poll even as majority of respondents have an high unfavorable opinion of both the aspirants.This is for the first time in a poll that Mr Trump is seen ahead of Ms Clinton, albeit within a margin of error.Fox News, in its latest national polls, found that Mr Trump has the support of 45 per cent of the potential general election votes, while Ms Clinton has the support of 42 per cent.Mr Trump emerged as the presumptive nominee of the Republican party after winning the Indian elections early this month.He is the only GOP candidate left in the race, which early this year was crowded with 16 more White House aspirants including well established Senators and Governors.Ms Clinton, however, is yet to clinch the nomination as her sole rival Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont is giving a tough fight by winning a number of States and preventing her from acquiring enough delegate to become the presumptive nominee.Mr Sanders, according to the Fox News, is still ahead of Mr Trump. In a hypothetical match up, Mr Sanders has support of 46 per cent of the respondents as against 42 per cent for Mr Trump, Fox News said.However, a key highlight of the latest poll is the high unfavorable view of both Mr Trump (56 per cent) and Ms Clinton (61 per cent). Earlier Ms Clinton’s negative rating was 58 per cent and Mr Trump’s was at 65 per cent.”The standard for unpopular presidential candidates has been Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980, but we have two new champions,” said Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Democratic pollster Chris Anderson.”Clinton and Trump rate lower than disastrous candidates like Mondale or Dole,” he said.Mr Trump leads Ms Clinton by 55 to 31 per cent among whites. On the other hand Ms Clinton has a commanding lead over Mr Trump when it comes to black (90 to seven per cent) and Hispanics (62 to 23 per cent).According to the report, Trump’s lead is within the poll’s 3-point margin of error.Trump’s standing in the poll, released on Wednesday, shows an improvement for the billionaire businessman from a Fox national poll in April showing Clinton on top – 48pc to 41pc.Still, early national polling has painted a mixed picture – a recent CNN/ORC poll showed Clinton leading Trump by 13 points – 54pc to 41pc.As has been the case in most polls, Trump and Clinton face a significant gender and racial gap among their supporters, the CNN report said.
