Clinton, Trump tied in three key states

HAMDEN, Conn., May 10 (UPI) -- Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are tied in three swing states in a general election matchup, according to new polls.

They are statistically tied in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to the Quinnipiac University polls released Tuesday.

"At this juncture, Trump is doing better in Pennsylvania than the GOP nominees in 2008 and 2012," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll. "And the two candidates are about where their party predecessors were at this point in Ohio and Florida."

Clinton leads Trump by one point in Florida and Pennsylvania (both 43 to 42 percent) but the businessman leads in Ohio (43 to 39 percent).

All three polls have a 3 percent margin of error: 1,051 Florida voters were surveyed, 1,042 in Ohio and 1,077 in Pennsylvania.

Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee last week when his two remaining rivals, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, dropped out after the Indiana primary.

Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by nearly 6 points nationwide, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.

Voters go to the polls in primaries in West Virginia today and GOP voters vote in Nebraska.

Clinton leads Trump by 6.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics 30-day average of all polls.

The three swing states are all electoral-college rich.

Florida awards 29 electoral votes, and it's 19 for Ohio and 20 for Pennsylvania. In the 2012 election, Barack Obama won all three states' electoral college votes against Mitt Romney.

Sanders would beat Trump in a matchup in the three states, 44-42 in Florida, 43-41 in Ohio and 47-41 in Pennsylvania.

Clinton and Trump are viewed unfavorably in similar percentages in these states.

For Clinton it's 57 percent in Florida, 62 percent in Ohio and 58 percent in Pennsylvania.

For Trump, it's 57 percent in Florida, 57 percent in Ohio and 55 percent in Pennsylvania.

Sanders' numbers are much lower: 41 percent in Florida, 40 percent in Ohio and 36 percent in Pennsylvania.