March 13, 2025
RALEIGH — A majority of likely voters in North Carolina would support the state creating its own Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to the latest Carolina Journal Poll, which surveyed 615 likely North Carolina voters, 51.9% of voters favor an NC DOGE, while 40.6% oppose it. The remaining 7.6% of voters are unsure. The proposal is most popular among rural North Carolinians (66% support) and least popular among urban voters (33%).
A plurality of voters (49.4%) also expressed support for ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in state agencies and public schools. Support for ending DEI has a 4.1-point margin over opposition for ending these programs (45.3%).
Despite support for a state-level DOGE, the federal-level DOGE is less popular. A plurality (49.5%) of voters said they have an unfavorable view of DOGE, compared to 45.5% of voters who shared a favorable view. When asked about their opinion of Elon Musk, the head of the entity, voters were even less approving. A majority (52.3%) of North Carolinians said they had an unfavorable view of Musk, while 44.6% shared a favorable view.
“These poll results bode well for North Carolina’s recently established Committee on Government Efficiency,” said Carolina Journal publisher and John Locke Foundation CEO Donald Bryson. “North Carolinians want to know that their tax dollars are going to worthwhile causes, not government bloat.”
President Donald Trump’s approval ratings, on the other hand, are not underwater. North Carolinians are seemingly split down the middle, with 49.5% approving how Trump is doing his job and 48.7% of voters disapproving. This is well within the poll’s ±3.94-point margin of error. Vice President JD Vance’s disapproval rating (50.4%) is higher than his approval rating (45.5%) by a 4.9-point margin. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, however, enjoys majority approval (55.6%) with few disapproving (20.4%) of his job in office so far.
Voters are evenly divided on their view of the direction of the country. The poll uncovered a statistical tie between those who say the United States is headed in the “right direction” (47.6%) and those who say it is on the “wrong track” (47.4%). Voters are similarly divided on the direction of North Carolina, with 38.1% of voters saying the state is heading in the “right direction” and 38.5% saying it is on the “wrong track.” However, nearly a quarter of voters were undecided.
Nearly six months after Hurricane Helene hit the state, survey participants were asked to evaluate the response. A strong majority (62.1%) said they had an unfavorable view of the government’s response to Helene. Only 30.2% said they had a favorable view of the government response. A majority of voters (50.3%) believe that private organizations had the best disaster response. In comparison, 16.2% said the state government was best, 9.5% said local government was best, and 7.9% said the federal government was best.
“Government agencies would do good to relax restrictions on private organizations that can help after natural disasters,” Bryson continued. “Private organizations, like Samaritan’s Purse, were immediately on the ground following Helene, while many Western North Carolinians reported not seeing help from the government for days – or even weeks.”
On the matter of government, 87.6% of voters would approve of term limits for leadership positions in the General Assembly, such as House speaker and president pro tempore of the Senate. Less than 5% oppose leadership term limits. However, a plurality of voters (41.4%) oppose limits to the length of legislative sessions. About a quarter of North Carolinians (23.3%) support legislative session limits, while 35.3% are unsure.
Turning to healthcare, over a quarter of North Carolinians (27.6%) say they have experienced unacceptably long wait times to access healthcare facilities in the past year. Long wait times were most commonly cited by those living in coastal areas (35%) and people making less than $40,000 a year (35%). An additional 9.2% of voters said they were denied access to a healthcare facility due to lack of capacity.
Certificate of Need (CON) is a program in North Carolina that bars hospitals from increasing capacity or purchasing large equipment without permission from the government. When asked about this program, voters supported repealing CON by a 2:1 margin. While many (43%) voters were uncertain, 37.8% said CON should be repealed, and 19.2% said CON should remain.
Voters are more certain about the use of smartphones in the classroom. More than two-thirds (67.7%) of respondents said smartphones should not be allowed in class. This response is slightly higher than the 64.3% who said the same when Carolina Journal last polled this question in April 2024. A little more than a quarter (27.8%) said smartphones should be allowed. Voters under 35 were most likely to believe phones should be allowed in class (45%), while voters 65 or older were the least likely (21%).
A narrower majority of voters (55.6%) stated that they disapprove of “constitutional carry,” or allowing North Carolinians to conceal carry without a permit. Approximately 42% said they would support constitutional carry. Women (30%) were significantly less likely to support constitutional carry than men (56%). Similarly, urban voters (21%) were much less likely to support it than rural voters (57%).
Rural voters were also more likely to trust the safety of air travel in North Carolina. On average, 67.9% of voters trust air travel coming in and out of North Carolina. Rural voters (70%) were more likely to express trust than urban voters (63%), with those in the Charlotte area being particularly skeptical. Over a third of Charlotteans said they distrust air travel. On average, nearly a quarter of North Carolinians do not currently trust the safety and reliability of air travel coming in and out of the state.