(The Center Square) – Michael Whatley is favored by 38.3% for U.S. Senate and 80.9% of respondents give approval to the job done by second-term Republican President Donald Trump, a new poll released Thursday says.
The sampling of 600 likely Republican primary voters was taken Sunday and Monday. The poll carries a +/- 4% margin of error. The survey was by Harper Polling in conjunction with the Carolina Journal, a publication of the John Locke Foundation.
Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party, was not the top choice. “Unsure” garnered 50.1% as the final week of early in-person voting ahead of Tuesday’s primary Election Day next week.
Still, he’s far and away the leader of those chosen. Don Brown polled at 7.5%, Michele Morrow 1.6% and Thomas Johnson 1%. Less than that were Margot Dupre, Elizabeth Temple and Richard Dansie.
“Michael Whatley has a clear advantage and is above the level you’d normally want to see to secure a nomination,” said Donald Bryson, John Locke Foundation CEO and Carolina Journal publisher. “But when half the electorate remains undecided this late in the game, that’s a flashing yellow light, not a victory lap. Late-deciding voters will determine whether this becomes a consolidation story or a surprise.”
The 51-day window for the primary began with absentee ballots mailed out Jan. 12. Early in-person voting began Feb. 12 and ends Saturday.
Trump polled higher than the favorable opinion (74%) of the Grand Old Party. Support for the slogan and activities to “Make America Healthy Again” was better than both at 81.1%.
Enthusiasm for the midterms, however, was a bit less at 68.7%.
On questions of favorable, unfavorable or even whether respondents knew of the politicians, U.S. Sen. Ted Budd (32%) had the best showing among Labor Commissioner Luke Farley (15.9%), Auditor Dave Boliek (13.9%), Paul Newby (13.2%), Treasurer Brad Briner (11.7%) and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (minus-18.2%).
Seventy-seven percent of the respondents said they identified as MAGA, meaning Trump’s slogan of “Make America Great Again.” Broken down, it was 53.4% definitely and 23.6% somewhat. There were 19.7% saying no, broken down to 5.8% no not really, and 13.9% no definitely not.
Choosing influential news and information sources – asked “Who or what sources do you trust?” – the respondents said Fox News (49.9%), followed by Newsmax (26.9%), Joe Rogan (13%), Tucker Carlson (12.8%), Megyn Kelly (9.7%), Daily Wire and Ben Shapiro (7.9%), Breitbart (6.5%), Candace Owens (5.2%), The Free Press (3.6%) and Daily Caller (1.5%). There was 32% choosing another outlet, and 9.6% unsure.
By medium, the Republican respondents were highest in cable news outlets (43.7%) and social media (39.3%). A step back was local broadcast television news (29.8%), national broadcast television news (24.4%) and other websites (23.1%).
The rest included talk radio (16.7%), Facebook (16.1%), YouTube (14.6%), podcasts (13.4%), streaming apps (10.6%), newspapers (8.9%), social media site X (9.4%), Instagram (4.6%) and TikTok (4.5%). The unsure category got 3.6%.
