Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has pulled nearly even with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for the first time since May, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken over the course of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week.
The July 18-22 national online poll found that 41 per cent of likely voters supported Clinton, while 38 per cent supported Trump. Given the poll's credibility interval of about 4 percentage points, Trump and Clinton should be considered to be about even in the race.
Just before Republicans opened their convention last Tuesday, Trump had trailed Clinton by nearly 10 percentage points in the poll.
The New York businessman-turned-politician formally accepted the Republican nomination for the November 8 presidential election during a convention at which the party at times struggled to show unity. However, on the final night of the convention, Republicans gave Trump a standing ovation as he pledged to take back a country that he said is plagued by crime, terrorism and ineffective leadership.
The last time Trump drew about even with Clinton was in mid-May, after his last two rivals for the Republican nomination dropped out of the race and party leaders started to get behind his campaign.
