Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in virtual dead heat before 1st debate

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump are in virtual dead heat on the eve of the first presidential debate, the latest opinion polls said on Sunday.

Ms Clinton, who is the first ever woman to be nominated as a presidential candidate by a major political party, faces off real estate mogul Trump in the first of a series of three presidential debates beginning Monday at Hofstra University in Hampstead, about an hour’s drive from New York City. The two leaders are locked in a neck-and-neck battle, with just over a month to go for the elections.

Representing the Democratic Party, Ms Clinton (49 per cent) is two points ahead of Mr Trump (47 per cent) among likely voters in a two-way matchup, the Washington Post and ABC News said in a joint poll carried out by them. The two leaders are tied at 46 per cent among all registered voters in the two-way matchup.

Ms Clinton (46 per cent) leads Mr Trump (44 per cent) in four-way match up with Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson (five per cent) and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at one per cent. The two party nominees are tied at 41 per cent in the four-way matchup.

Ms Clinton’s two-point edge among likely voters, in both the four-way and two-way ballot tests, is within the survey’s 4.5 percentage-point margin of sampling error, it said.

The latest poll shows how much the presidential contest has tightened in recent weeks and reflects the catch-up done by the 70-year-old reality TV star in the last nine weeks when he was trailing behind the 68-year-old former secretary of state by almost double digits.