Election Polls 2016: Donald Trump And Hillary Clinton See Low Popularity Ahead Of New York Primary

The popularity of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates leading the 2016 race with the most delegates has remained low, according to a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll published Sunday. While Republican Donald Trump's ratings have remained unchanged in the past month, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has seen a 5 percent dip in her favorability.

Of registered voters in both parties surveyed by NBC/Wall Street Journal, 56 percent have a negative view of Clinton and 32 percent view her positively, compared to 51 percent holding a negative view and 38 percent a positive view last month. Despite leading Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by 300 delegates, Clinton has lost a string of first-round voting events in the past month, as Sanders has seen his popularity surge.

Business mogul Donald Trump saw his unpopularity remain unchanged in the past month, despite a series of widely publicized missteps. After Trump told MSNBC in March that women who have abortions should receive “some form of punishment,” the presidential candidate back-tracked and gave a series of different and often conflicting views on abortion in the 24 hours that followed, drawing ire from Democratic and Republican women alike.

His campaign took another public relations hit after campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was arrested for simple battery on a female journalist, former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. The case was later dropped, and his ratings have remained relatively unchanged, with 65 percent of those surveyed in both parties holding an unfavorable view of him and 24 percent holding a favorable view.

The survey comes just two days ahead of primary voting in New York Tuesday, where both Clinton and Trump have looked to present themselves as native New Yorkers, with Clinton having served as a New York senator and Trump born in New York City. Despite low popularity ratings, Clinton is leading Sanders with a spread of 13.8 percentage points and Trump is leading the GOP field with a spread of 31.3 percentage points in New York, according to Real Clear Politics which takes the average of available polling data.

The survey took place April 10-14 with 1,000 registered voters, and it had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.