ORLANDO, Fla. _ Hillary Clinton is in a virtual tie with Donald Trump in Florida, but she has a moderate-to-sizable lead in other swing states, a new poll released Tuesday shows.
The Quinnipiac University Poll showed Clinton leading Trump 46 percent to 45 percent among likely Florida voters in a head-to-head matchup.
With third-party candidates included, Clinton and Trump are tied at 43 percent, with 7 percent for Libertarian Gary Johnson and 3 percent for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
"Florida we knew was close; it's been close for so long," said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida. "Some people point to changing demographics, but Trump has expanded the voter base a little bit."
The poll of 1,056 likely Florida voters was conducted from July 30 to Aug. 7 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
"Florida is just an evenly divided state," MacManus said.
In the other swing states polled, Clinton has a 49 percent to 45 percent lead over Trump in Ohio and a 52 percent to 42 percent lead in Pennsylvania.
"This swing state poll shows a mixed result for the presidential candidates, although certainly with an overall edge for Secretary Hillary Clinton," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. " ... But Florida, with the largest cache of Electoral College votes, is a tie."
Trump had a 42 to 39 percent lead over Clinton in the last Quinnipiac poll in July. Clinton had her greatest lead in June, when she had a 47 percent to 39 percent lead in the poll.
In the new poll, Florida voters gave both Clinton and Trump negative favorability ratings.
Clinton was viewed 39 percent favorable to 55 percent unfavorably, while Trump had similar numbers at 39 favorable, 54 percent unfavorable.
"It is not that her voters are in love with Secretary Clinton _ they just dislike her less than they disdain Trump," Brown said. "In fact, among Clinton voters in all three states, more than 4 in 10 say their opposition to Trump, rather than their liking of her, is the main reason for their vote.
"Among Trump voters, dislike of Secretary Clinton is even a larger factor in their choice," he said. "Among Trump voters, well over half say they back him because they dislike her."
Among Clinton supporters in Florida, 42 percent said their main reason is being pro-Clinton, while 41 percent said their main motive is being anti-Trump and 13 percent said they back the Democratic nominee.
Just 29 percent of Florida Trump supporters said they are pro-Trump, while 54 percent were anti-Clinton and 10 percent said they back the Republican nominee.
The poll showed the gender gap among the candidates was still wide, with Clinton winning women in Florida 53 percent to 40 percent and Trump winning Florida men 51 percent to 39 percent.
Both ran strong within their own party, with Trump netting 91 percent of Republicans and Clinton winning 89 percent of Democrats.
Independent voters were evenly split, with 42 percent for Clinton and 41 percent for Trump.
