Hillary Clinton is expected to gain critical ground on Donald Trump based on her strong performance in their first head to head presidential debate on the campus of Hofstra University Monday night.

According to 538.com, the Democratic nominee and former first lady bested Trump in a variety of key metrics, all of which could result in a swing of up to four percentage points in Clinton's favor. Such a swing particularly bodes significant given how close recent Electoral College polls indicated the race between the two fierce rivals has grown.

Going into debate night, 538.com reported the electoral vote race between the two was nearly even and gave Trump a campaign season-high 46 percent chance of emerging as Barack Obama's White House successor. But all that momentum Trump seemed to have came before an overwhelming 62 percent of all voters declared Clinton the runaway debate winner in a CNN/ORC poll.

In addition, an instant Public Policy Polling survey solidly swung for her by a margin of 51 percent to 40 percent. Pollsters found Latino and African American voters went for Clinton by a nearly 6 to 1 margin at 77 percent to 13 percent. Time magazine adds GOP pollster Frank Luntz also found his focus group of Pennsylvania voters also overwhelmingly went for Clinton. Pennsylvania is widely viewed as one of the race's most critical battleground states, with Clinton hoping to build on a string where Democrats have won the state in the last six presidential elections.

Polls Also Show Trump Support

Not everything about debate night was full of doom and gloom for Trump who managed to come out on top in several polls, among them the Drudge Report, Breitbart News and Time magazine.

Given the topsy-turvy nature of this year's presidential race, major campaign events on the scale of the season's first debate have proven to sway many undecided voters. Following the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia earlier this summer, polls swung in Clinton's favor by roughly eight points.

Back in 2012 when challenger Mitt Romney was seen as the landslide winner in his first debate with President Obama, the republican nominee shaved 4.4 points off the president's than commanding lead. In a similar scenario, Bill Clinton gained 4.1 points on George H. Bush back in 1992.

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