(The Center Square) – Republicans are leading among North Carolina voters in both state and national races, says a nonprofit policy organization’s new poll.
Voters in the Old North State head to the polls on Super Tuesday in the primary calendar six months from today. The general election is just under 14 months out.
Carolina Forward, which promotes policies that lean liberal in the political aisles, used Change Research to poll 914 likely North Carolina voters Sept. 1-5. Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson leads Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein 42% to 38% in the race to follow term-limited Gov. Roy Cooper; 20% are undecided. The poll’s margin of error is ±3.6%.
The breakdown across demographics shows Stein leading among Democrats, women, non-white, urban and suburban voters, while Robinson holds an advantage with Republicans, men, whites, and rural voters. Independents favored Stein by 6%, 26% to 20%, with 55% of those polled undecided.
It’s a similar situation in the presidential election, with Republican former President Donald Trump ahead of President Joe Biden 46% to 42%, with 12% undecided.
Ninety-one percent of Democratic voters backed Biden; 92% of Republicans are for Trump, who enjoyed support from 56% of men, 55% of whites, and 59% of rural voters. Biden led with 60% of nonwhite voters, 76% of urban voters, and 47% of women. Independents favored Biden by 27% to Trump’s 24%, with nearly half undecided.
Support was nearly evenly split in the presidential race among likely suburban voters with 44% answering they would vote for Biden compared to 43% for Trump, with 13% undecided.
The generic Republican candidate for the state legislature led the Democratic candidate by 4%, with 43% of those polled planning to vote Republican compared to 39% Democratic, and 18% undecided.
Other poll results showed 61% support and 32% opposed to “amending the North Carolina constitution to guarantee individual rights to make reproductive choices, including the right to an abortion.”
“Using taxpayer money to subsidize tuition for students attending private religious schools” found 65% opposed and 26% in support. Carolina Forward advocates against both abortion restrictions and the North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship that provides funds for parents who opt to send their children to private schools.
The poll is largely in line with polling in August from Civitas and the John Locke Foundation, a nonprofit policy organization that leans conservative. It gave Republicans an advantage in state and national races.
The foundation’s Civitas Poll of 600 likely general election voters conducted Aug. 20-21 found 29% want Trump versus 18% who want Biden. Another 17.9% preferred another Republican, 20% preferred another Democrat, 8.4% wanted someone from another party, and 6.4% were unsure.
Support for the generic Republican candidate for the General Assembly was at 46.7%, compared to support for the Democratic candidate of 41.2%.
North Carolina voter registration data through Sept. 12 shows 36% of more than 7.3 million are unaffiliated, nearly 33% are Democrats, and 30% are Republicans. Remaining registrations for the Green, Libertarian, Constitution and No Labels parties comprise less than 1%.
