HPU Poll: Presidential Approval at 38%, Governor Approval at 47% in North Carolina
North Carolinians are divided on their choice for Congress and have low trust in government.
HIGH POINT, N.C., Feb. 8, 2021 – In a new High Point University Poll, North Carolinians gave President Joe Biden a job approval rating of 38%. About one-half (50%) of North Carolina residents said they disapprove of the job President Biden is doing.
These same respondents gave Governor Roy Cooper a job approval rating of 47%, while 31% said they disapprove and 22% did not offer an opinion either way.
About three out of five (60%) of North Carolinians said the country is off on the wrong track. Less than a third (31%) of those same residents said the country is headed in the right direction.
“Not much has changed in our latest HPU Poll regarding the approval of President Biden,” says Brian McDonald, associate director of the HPU Poll and adjunct instructor. “The HPU Poll will continue to track the public’s reaction to the president through future polls.”
The HPU Poll also asked about North Carolina residents’ choice for Congress in 2022. When asked how they would vote if the elections for U.S. Congress were held today, North Carolinians are closely divided with 39% choosing the Democratic candidate and 37% choosing the Republican candidate. Undecided respondents (17%) and people who said they would choose some other candidate (5%) also made up a significant proportion of the respondents.
North Carolinians are also showing low levels of trust in government, though they are somewhat more trusting of their government in Raleigh than in Washington, D.C. About one quarter (28%) of N.C. residents say they trust the government in Washington just about always or most of the time. Approximately four out of 10 respondents (41%) say they trust the government in Raleigh to do what is right just about always or most of the time.
The poll also finds that 60% of North Carolina residents say that since the 2020 elections, the American people as a whole are more divided. About one out of five North Carolinians (22%) say that it’s not much different than usual, and only 10% think that the American people are more united.
The poll finds similar though somewhat more positive attitudes about the people of North Carolina. About two out of five North Carolina Residents (42%) say that since the 2020 elections, the people of North Carolina as a whole are more divided. About a third (34%) say that it’s not much different than usual, and only 14% think that the people of North Carolina are more united.
“North Carolinians appear to be divided over their choice for Congress in the 2022 elections and are not particularly trusting of their governments in Washington, D.C., or Raleigh,” says Dr. Martin Kifer, chair of HPU’s Department of Political Science and director of the HPU Poll. “This is related to North Carolina residents’ perceptions that people in their country and state are divided as well. We’ll continue to examine these relationships to observe the direction in which citizen attitudes are moving in this important election year.”
NC residents – Country Direction (January – February 2022)
Do you think things in this country are generally going in the right direction or do you feel things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track?
Right direction – 31%
Wrong track – 60%
Don’t know/refused – 9%
(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Jan. 21 – Feb. 4, n = 884 and credibility interval is +/- 3.4%)
NC residents – Presidential Job Approval (January – February 2022)
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Joe Biden is handling his job as president?
Approve – 38%
Disapprove – 50%
Don’t know/refused – 11%
(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Jan. 21 – Feb. 4, n = 884 and credibility interval is +/- 3.4%)
NC residents – NC Governor Approval (January – February 2022)
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Roy Cooper is handling his job as Governor of North Carolina?
Approve – 47%
Disapprove – 31%
Don’t know/refused – 22%
(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Jan. 21 – Feb. 4, n = 884 and credibility interval is +/- 3.4%)
NC residents – Generic Ballot for Congressional Elections (January – February 2022)
If the elections for U.S. Congress were being held TODAY, would you vote for the “Republican Party’s candidate” OR the “Democratic Party’s candidate” for Congress in your district?
Republican candidate – 37%
Democratic candidate – 39%
Other – 5%
Don’t know/Undecided – 17%
Refused – 2%
(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Jan. 21 – Feb. 4, n = 884 and credibility interval is +/- 3.4%)
NC residents – Trust in Government in Washington, D.C. (January – February 2022)
How much of the time do you think you can trust the government in Washington to do what is right — just about always, most of the time, only some of the time, or almost never?
Just about always – 8%
Most of the time – 20%
Only some of the time – 46%
Almost never – 26%
(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Jan. 21 – Feb. 4, n = 884 and credibility interval is +/- 3.4%)
NC residents – Trust in Government in Raleigh (January – February 2022)
How much of the time do you think you can trust the North Carolina’s state government in Raleigh to do what is right — just about always, most of the time, only some of the time, or almost never?
Just about always – 9%
Most of the time – 32%
Only some of the time – 46%
Almost never – 14%
(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Jan. 21 – Feb. 4, n = 884 and credibility interval is +/- 3.4%)
NC residents – Divided America (January – February 2022)
Now, thinking about the American people as a whole after the 2020 elections, do you think that people in the U.S. are more united, more divided, or not much different than usual?
More united – 10%
More divided – 60%
Not much different than usual – 22%
Don’t know/Refuse – 8%
(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Jan. 21 – Feb. 4, n = 884 and credibility interval is +/- 3.4%)
NC residents – Divided North Carolina (January – February 2022)
Now, thinking about the people of North Carolina as a whole after the 2020 elections, do you think that people in North Carolina are more united, more divided, or not much different than usual?
More united – 14%
More divided – 42%
Not much different than usual – 34%
Don’t know – 9%
(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Jan. 21 – Feb. 4, n = 884 and credibility interval is +/- 3.4%)
The most recent HPU Poll was fielded by live interviewers at the High Point University Survey Research Center calling on Jan. 21 through Feb. 4, 2022, and an online survey was fielded at the same time. The responses from a sample of all North Carolina counties came from 884 adults interviewed online (820 respondents) as well as landline or cellular telephones (64 respondents). The Survey Research Center contracted with dynata, formerly Research Now SSI, to acquire these samples, and fielded the online survey using the SRC’s Qualtrics platform. This is a combined sample of live phone interviews and online interviews. The online sampling is from a panel of respondents, and their participation does not adhere to usual assumptions associated with random selection. Therefore, it is not appropriate to assign a classic margin of sampling error for the results. In this case, the SRC provides a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points to account for a traditional 95% confidence interval for the estimates (plus or minus 3.3 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.07 (based on the weighting). The data is weighted toward population estimates for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and education based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. The final stage of weighting ensures proper weighting of the online and live interviews. Factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional errors into the findings of opinion polls. Details from this survey are available here.
Further results and methodological details from the most recent survey and past studies can be found at theSurvey Research Center website. The materials online include past press releases as well as memos summarizing the findings (including approval ratings) for each poll since 2010.
The HPU Poll reports methodological details in accordance with the standards set out by AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, and the HPU Survey Research Center is a Charter Member of the Initiative. See more information here.
You can follow the HPU Poll on Twitter here.
Dr. Martin Kifer, chair and associate professor of political science, serves as the director of the HPU Poll, and Brian McDonald is the associate director of the HPU Poll.