Can Joe Biden hold this lead in North Carolina ?
Who will come out to vote ?
The general elections are still more than six months away, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is playing a major role in how voters are sizing up incumbent politicians, according to a WRAL News poll released Tuesday.
SurveyUSA conducted the exclusive poll on April 23-26, contacting 604 registered voters across North Carolina, 580 of whom said they would likely vote in the November elections. Most of the poll’s questions have credibility intervals of plus or minus 5.3 to 5.5 percentage points.
Seventy percent of likely voters said President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic would factor into how they will vote for president, while nearly three-quarters said Gov. Roy Cooper’s actions in responding to the public health emergency would play a role in their voting in the gubernatorial election. But only 47 percent said Republican U.S. Thom Tillis’ response would affect how they vote in the Senate race this fall.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the lone Democrat left in the race to challenge Trump, would edge the Republican president in North Carolina by a 50-45 percent margin if the vote were held now, according to the poll. Among voters who say Trump’s handling of coronavirus is a major factor, Biden leads 61 to 34 percent, but Trump is ahead among voters who call the pandemic a minor factor in the race and those who say it plays no role in how they will vote.
Overall, Trump has small leads among male voters and Hispanic voters, 20-point leads among whites and rural voters and sizable leads among Protestants and Catholics. Meanwhile, Joe Biden leads Trump by 5% points in North Carolina 6 months out….