Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump by double digits in Colorado, and she maintains that lead when third-party candidates are included, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll released Friday shows.
The poll surveyed voters in four states -- Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia -- over the last week and found Clinton widening her support in three of them and maintaining a five-point lead in Florida.
Colorado had the highest percentage of voters who preferred "neither" candidate when the choice was Clinton versus Trump -- 14 percent -- but she still came out well ahead, 46 percent to Trump's 32 percent.
When Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson were added to the mix, Clinton still prevailed, with 41 percent of the vote to Trump's 29 percent. Johnson got 15 percent, while Stein got 6 percent.
Maybe this will motivate Johnson to get his paperwork in and put his name on the ballot. (That's right. There are 26 candidates running for president in Colorado, including independent Republican Evan McMullin, but Johnson isn't officially one of them.)
The poll also found that Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet is ahead of Republican challenger Darryl Glenn 53 percent to 38 percent.
All of this backs up what University of Denver political scientist Seth Masket told us this week: Colorado isn't really a swing state this year.
"This is what happens when overall nationally you have one party that is not doing very well," he said.
Ouch.
