(The Center Square) – For the first time since midsummer, polls have Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson within 5 percentage points of Attorney General Josh Stein for North Carolina governor.
The last few polls have Stein up just 4% and 6%, compared to his lead from a few weeks ago of as much as 14%.
Robinson, who is hoping to become the state’s first Black governor, said the momentum for his campaign is growing.
“The excitement for OUR movement has never been higher, and the enthusiasm is growing stronger each day,” Robinson posted to social media.
A poll from Redfield & Wilton Strategies had Robinson down by just 4%, a narrow margin that hadn’t been seen in the polling since early August and late July.
Two other polls, from Emerson College and East Carolina University Center for Survey Research, have Stein up by 6%.
All three of the polls ended on Aug. 28 and while they still don’t have Robinson within the margin of error, it is much closer that he had been polling the last few weeks where numbers like 8% and 10% had emerged.
The Redfield & Wilton poll highlighted what experts say will be Robinson’s biggest weakness with voters in North Carolina.
“While Stein polls at the same percentage of the vote as Harris does in North Carolina, Robinson polls five points worse than Trump does in the state,” the analysis says.
This echoes findings by a recent Elon University Poll, which found that Robinson struggles to maintain the approval of voters in North Carolina, even from those within his party.
While that poll found only 30% of registered voters hold a very or somewhat favorable view of Robinson, Stein garners a 44% favorability.
Professor Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll, told The Center Square that the gap in favorability between the candidates doesn’t necessarily mean that Robinson will lose.
“I don’t think Stein is going to win by 14 points,” he said. “I don’t think it is inconceivable that Robinson ends up winning. I think he’ll end up closing the gap.”
The 2024 campaign for governor in North Carolina has been a hotly contested one, with both candidates seeing historic amounts of donations pouring into their campaigns.
Going into the final stretch before the election, Stein had $15.9 million in the bank, while Robinson had $6.6 million.
