MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump ahead of Hillary in new polls, but both candidates have record negatives

The real-estate tycoon leads the former secretary of state, 42%- 37%, in a general-election presidential match-up, according to a Rasmussen poll released Thursday.

Donald Trump has pulled ahead of Hillary Clinton in two new polls, as Republicans begin to coalesce around him while Bernie Sanders keeps hammering fellow Democrat Clinton. The real-estate tycoon leads the former secretary of state, 42% to 37%, in a general-election presidential match-up, according to a Rasmussen poll released Thursday.

 A Fox News survey out Wednesday night found similar results — with Trump up by 45% to 42%. Both showings represented improvements for Trump over previous surveys by the pollsters — with a May 2 Rasmussen poll showing The Donald ahead 41%-39% percent and an April 14 Fox poll showing Clinton leading the former ¬“Apprentice” star by 48%-41%.

Analysts offered different takes on the polls’ significance six months before the November election.

“Of course she [Clinton] should be worried. I doubt Trump is actually in the lead, and I’d need to see more good national polling. But these surveys suggest a close, tough race is ahead,” said University of Virginia Prof. Larry Sabato. “You should always run as though you’re a percent or two behind.”

But Matt Hale, a political-science professor at Seton Hall University, said there are too many variables this far out for either campaign to take the polls as gospel.

“The whole world can change between now and Election Day (November), so these early polls are not going to be overly accurate,” he said.

“There are probably going to be three or four ups and downs in the cycle before then.

But the Fox poll showed both candidates with unusually high negatives.

Roughly 61% had a negative view of Clinton — up from 58% in March and a record for a Democratic candidate.

Fifty-six percent had an unfavorable view of Trump — actually an improvement because he was at 65% two months ago, a record for a GOP contender.

“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 conducted the Fox poll with Democratic pollster Chris Anderson.

“Clinton and Trump rate lower than disastrous candidates like Mondale or Dole,” Shaw added. In fact, a New York Times/CBS News poll found that 64% of voters find both Clinton and Trump not to be trustworthy.

The poll also found both candidates with low favorability ratings: 31% of voters have a favorable opinion of Clinton, and only 26% feel that way about Trump.