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Poll: Clinton Support Spikes Following Democratic Convention

Hillary Clinton now leads Donald Trump 50 to 42 percent after last week's Democratic National Convention.
Image: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton campaigns on the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign rally at Temple University in Philadelphia, Penn., July 29.AARON P. BERNSTEIN / Reuters

Following the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton now leads Donald Trump by 8 points — 50 percent to 42 percent — up from a single-point difference last week, according to the latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll.

Clinton’s gain also comes after a series of controversial comments made by the Republican nominee this past week regarding the family of a fallen American soldier and Trump’s suggestion that Russian hackers should seek out deleted Clinton emails.

The Republican National Convention did not result in a post-convention bounce for Trump.

Clinton also saw a bounce in a four-way general election match-up against Trump, Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Clinton now leads Trump by 5 points — 43 percent to 38 percent — in the four-way race. This is a lead-reversal from last week, when Trump was beating the Democratic nominee by 2 points. Support for Johnson (9 points) and Stein (4 points) remained virtually unchanged from last week.

Related: Donald Trump Calls Hillary Clinton 'The Devil'

These results are according to the latest from the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking poll conducted online from July 25 through July 31 among 12,742 adults who say they are registered to vote.

Perhaps a result of a series of well-received speeches from high-profile Democrats, Clinton’s gains this week were not only in the horserace numbers. Overall, the number of voters who say they have a strongly favorable impression of the Democratic nominee is up 5 points — from 15 percent to 20 percent — since the question was asked two weeks ago.

Clinton’s favorability among Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters rose from 74 percent two weeks ago to 80 percent this week. Her unfavorable rating also dropped among Democrats from 24 percent to 19 percent.

President Obama, who spoke at the convention last week, also got an increase in approval this week. His job approval rating is up 3 points — 52 percent approve this week compared to 49 percent last week.

After a contentious primary season, the convention offered Democrats the chance to unite as a party. Overall, most voters who watched or followed the convention did not view the Democratic Party more favorably as a result — 27 percent viewed the Democratic Party more favorably as a result of the convention, but 35 percent viewed the party less favorably, and 37 percent said their opinion of the Democratic Party didn’t change.

Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters, half said they have a more favorable opinion of the Democratic Party as a result of the convention. Among Independent voters, 42 percent said they view the Democratic Party less favorably and 49 percent said the convention did not change their opinion. These results are similar to the favorability ratings we saw for the Republican Party last week following the GOP convention.

Overall, four in 10 voters said they were more interested in this year’s Democratic National Convention compared to previous years. Among Democrats, 58 percent said they were more interested in this year’s convention than in prior years. Roughly the same number of Republicans said that about the GOP convention last week. Among Independents, 46 percent said they had about the same level of interest this year as in previous years and 34 percent said they were less interested this year.

A strong Democratic convention combined with Trump’s troubles over the past few days surrounding his tweets toward the Khan family and comments about Russia produced a very good bounce for Clinton. The question is whether the bounce is short lived or represents a more permanent shift in the race.

The NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking poll was conducted online July 25 through July 31, 2016 among a national sample of 12,742 adults who say they are registered to vote. Respondents for this non-probability survey were selected from the nearly three million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Results have an error estimate of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points. For full results and methodology, click here.