Trump has 5-point lead in Bloomberg poll of battleground Ohio
Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton by 5 percentage points in a Bloomberg Politics poll of Ohio, a gap that underscores the Democrat's challenges in critical Rust Belt states after one of the roughest stretches of her campaign.
The Republican nominee leads Clinton 48 percent to 43 percent among likely voters in a two-way contest and 44 percent to 39 percent when third-party candidates are included.
The poll was taken Friday through Monday, as Clinton faced backlash for saying half of Trump supporters were a "basket of deplorables" and amid renewed concerns about her health after a video showed her stumbling as she left a Sept. 11 ceremony with what her campaign later said was a bout of pneumonia.
Trump's performance in the poll _ including strength among men, independents and union households _ is better than in other recent surveys of the state. It deals a blow to Clinton after she enjoyed polling advantages nationally and in most battleground states in August before the race tightened in September as more Republican voters unified around Trump.
_ Bloomberg News
