President Barack Obama's increasing popularity and lower gas prices will help Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton edge out her Republican rival Donald Trump and win this November, an economic election model from Moody's Analytics revealed.
The August model, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill, placed 16 states, which included Washington, D.C., "firmly in Democratic territory," with 11 more leaning that way for a total of 332 electoral votes, according to The Hill.
Republicans hold comfortable leads in 21 states, with three more leaning red, giving its candidate 206 electoral voters. Republicans hold leads in 21 states, with three more leaning red, for a total of 206 electoral voters.
But Moody's economist Dan White told The Hill the model's projections are "solely a reflection of economic and political conditions upon the incumbent party, and do not take any aspects of the individual candidates into account."
He added: "Given the unusual nature of the 2016 election cycle to date, it is possible that voters will react to changing economic and political conditions differently than they have in past election cycles, placing some risk in the model outcome."