Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump might be the most disliked nominees in decades

Redifining "the lesser of two evils"

Justin Carissimo
New York
Monday 23 May 2016 21:19 BST
A new poll shows how unfavorable Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are.
A new poll shows how unfavorable Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are. (Chip Somodevilla, Andrew Burton/Getty, Raul Luna/Flickr)

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

The likely showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could be a presidential race between the two most disliked candidates in three decades.

A joint ABC News and Washington Post poll released on Monday rewards Trump with a 60 percent unfavorable rating and Clinton with a 53 percent rating — the highest since George HW Bush earned himself 53 percent back in 1992 when he lost the race to Bill Clinton.

The poll also shows Clinton and Trump in a neck and neck general election race, and according to a Real Clear Politics average of five major outlets, the New York businessman leads the former secretary of state by .2 percentage points.

Still, 58 percent of voters in the ABC News and Washington Post survey said that Trump is unqualified to be president and 64 percent said that he needs to release his tax returns, ABC News reports. Seventy-six percent also believe Trump doesn’t show enough respect to folks he disagrees with.

Mitt Romney has been the only other candidate to surpass the 50 percent threshold with a 52 percent rating in 2012.

In the past three decades, the highest unfavorable rating goes to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke who earned a 69 percent rating. The difference between him and Trump, besides nine percentage points, is that Duke did not secure his party’s nomination back in 1992.

Bernie Sanders, who significantly trails Clinton in the delegate and super delegate count, is the only remaining candidate who is more liked than disliked with a 51 percent favorability rating.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in