Democrats fare well in High Point University’s latest poll of North Carolina’s top elections. High Point released the poll on Aug. 21, less than three months out from the general election in November. HPU surveyed 800 registered voters, including 660 likely voters.
In the race for the state’s open US Senate seat, former Gov. Roy Cooper is leading his opponent, Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and NCGOP. If the election were held today, 50% of likely voters said they would vote for Cooper, whereas 45% of said they would vote for Whatley.
That’s a smaller lead for Cooper than the one in the latest Carolina Journal poll released on Aug. 13, which showed Cooper holding a 12.5-point lead over Whatley, with Cooper at 51.5% and Whatley at 39%. The poll has a ±4% margin of error. Cooper’s lead grew from 11.1 points in the May CJ Poll.
“The gap between Cooper and Whatley in the US Senate race continues to fluctuate between five and 13 points,” Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, told Carolina Journal. “However, like several other recent polls, Cooper is at or slightly above 50 percent. Even if Whatley closes the gap in October, as he is likely to do, his campaign will need to bring Cooper below that mark to have a chance of winning.”
According to the HPU poll, 59% of likely voters say that things in this country are on the wrong track, while only 36% believe that things are going in the right direction.
The results of the August Carolina Journal poll indicate similar findings: 60.9% of respondents said that things in this country are on the wrong track, whereas only 34% said things are going in the right direction.
Republicans and Democrats were split evenly among likely voters, 47% each, in the race for the US House of Representatives, if the election were held today, according to the HPU poll, with 1% saying they would vote for another party and 5% unsure.
According to the Carolina Journal poll, Democrats scored slightly higher with 48.8% saying they would vote Democrat and 43.5% saying they would vote Republican in the congressional race.
In the North Carolina Supreme Court race, 47% of likely voters say they would vote for Democrat Anita Earls, and 44% said they would vote for Republican Sarah Stevens. The Carolina Journal poll shows similar numbers in this race, with 43.3% saying they would vote for Earls and 39.7% for Stevens.
According to the HPU poll, 54% of likely voters disapprove of President Donald Trump’s job performance, while only 42% approve. These numbers align with the Carolina Journal Poll results, which indicate that 56.7% disapprove of Trump’s job performance, while 41.2% disapprove.
Gov. Josh Stein’s approval rating is 53% among likely voters according to the HPU poll, while only 25% disapprove. According to the Carolina Journal poll, 47.2% of voters approve of Josh Stein’s job performance, whereas 34.4% disapprove.
“The poll is otherwise relatively good news for Republicans, who have seen some brutal polling numbers over the summer,” concluded Jackson. “They are only slightly behind in the State Supreme Court and generic General Assembly questions and are tied with Democrats in the generic congressional question. Since the president’s party tends to lose ground in midterm elections, those results are about as good as the GOP had any reason to expect.”
Full results of High Point University’s latest poll can be viewed here.
