CRN Poll: Clinton Closes Significant Gap As Campaign Ends, Election Looms

With just four days left until most voters cast their ballots, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has closed what just last month was a formidable gap among solution providers in a CRN poll between herself and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Clinton, who was 14 percentage points behind Trump has nearly closed the gap, now trailing Trump by only two points in the latest - and last - monthly CRN survey on the race.

This month, 44 percent of survey participants in the survey said that a Clinton presidency would be better for business, a significant increase from the results of a similar poll in August, when only 38 percent of participants chose the Democrat. The latest survey, taken by nearly 1300 CRN readers, ran from October 6 to November 4.

[Related: CRN Poll: Trump Continues To Lead Clinton By Double Digits ]

Tim Shea, president and senior consultant of Alpha NetSolutions, a Millbury, Mass., solution provider, said his vote for Clinton will mark the first time he has ever voted for a Democrat for president.

"I don't like Hillary, but the devil I know is better than the devil I don't, " said Shea, a self-described Northeast Republican. "I know what I am getting with Hillary. She is a traditional American politician. Donald Trump is a wild card who has never held an elected office and sounds like a crazy person. I have never voted for a Democrat for president in my life. I am saying to myself, 'What the hell did the Republican National Committee do to me?"

Shea, who said his business has been flat this year, said he does not view Trump as a great business leader but as the P.T. Barnum of our generation. "I am not a Clinton fan by any stretch of the imagination, but the (former President Bill) Clinton years weren't that bad for us as businesses," he said.

Shea said he sees both parties ignoring the bread and butter issues affecting small businesses like his. "We are always overlooked by government," he said.

Trump, who still holds the lead in CRN’s poll this month, won the support of 46 percent of poll participants in October, a decline compared to last month when 52 percent of participants said the New York businessman would be the best president for solution provider businesses.

A marketing executive for a Pennsylvania-based IT solution provider, who participated in the poll and requested anonymity, said her vote would be going to Trump, a decision based mainly on party loyalties and the belief that another four years with a Democrat in the White House would be bad for the country.

’Trump has the mentality of a businessman and that could be good for the economy,’ she said.

This month's two-point gap between Trump and Clinton is one of the closest poll results that CRN has seen in its monthly polls, which reach back to April.

Trump has held an average lead of 13 percentage points over Clinton since then, an average that includes a tie between the two candidates in July.

According to a senior account manager for an IT solution provider, who also asked for anonymity, said Trump is losing his lead in the poll because voters are realizing that they need a candidate with experience, which Trump does not.

’Clinton has the experience, … Let’s say she lied - even if she did - she has experience and Trump does not,’ he said. He added that although Trump may have connections in his own business circle, his influence does not give him the experience needed to govern ’the most powerful nation in the world.’

He went on to say that he believes Clinton will be better for the economy because she has focused her campaign on bringing people together.

’When Trump says ’we will win big,’ I think he means it will be at the expense of other people instead of brokering deals that will benefit both sides," he said. "Hillary is bringing people together, And working together allows people to work more efficiently and progressively.’