HIGH POINT, N.C., Nov. 17, 2014 – A new HPU Poll finds less than one-half of North Carolina residents approve of the job performances of President Barack Obama (43 percent) and Gov. Pat McCrory (47 percent).
Fully 49 percent and 37 percent disapprove of Obama and McCrory’s job performance, respectively.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senators Kay Hagan and Richard Burr have job approval ratings of 36 and 29 percent, respectively. Forty-eight percent disapprove of Hagan’s performance while 28 percent disapprove of Burr’s performance. Fully 43 percent expressed no opinion one way or another on Senator Burr’s job performance.
The poll also finds one-quarter (25 percent) of the same respondents believe the country is headed in the right direction, versus almost two-thirds (67 percent) of North Carolina residents who see the country as being on the wrong track.
“The HPU Poll’s first post-election approval ratings show that North Carolinians who disapprove of their elected officials’ performance continue to outnumber those who approve,” says Dr. Martin Kifer, assistant professor of political science and director of the HPU Poll. “If there are any big changes coming in how people feel about their government, we do not yet see them in this poll.”
All adults – Presidential job approval November 2014
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Barack Obama is handling his job as president?
Approve – 43 percent
Disapprove – 49 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 8 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Nov. 8-13, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Governor job approval November 2014
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Pat McCrory is handling his job as governor?
Approve – 47 percent
Disapprove – 37 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 16 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Nov. 8-13, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Senator Hagan job approval November 2014
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Kay Hagan is handling her job as United States Senator?
Approve – 36 percent
Disapprove – 48 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 16 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Nov. 8-13, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Senator Burr job approval November 2014
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Richard Burr is handling his job as United States Senator?
Approve – 29 percent
Disapprove – 28 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 43 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Nov. 8-13, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Country direction November 2014
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 – 25 percent
Wrong track – 67 percent
Don’t know/refused – 8 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Nov. 8-13, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
The most recent survey was fielded by live interviewers at the High Point University Survey Research Center calling on Nov. 8-13, 2014. The responses from a sample of all North Carolina counties came from 421 adults with landline or cellular telephones. The Survey Research Center contracted with Survey Sampling International to acquire this sample. The survey has an estimated margin of sampling error of approximately 4.8 percentage points for these respondents. The data are weighted toward population estimates for cellular and landline telephone use, age, gender and race. In addition to sampling error, factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional error into the findings of opinion polls. Details for this survey are available at http://www.highpoint.edu/src/files/2014/11/34memoA.pdf.
Further results and methodological details from the most recent survey and past studies can be found at the Survey Research Center website at http://www.highpoint.edu/src/. The materials online include past press releases as well as memos summarizing the findings (including approval ratings) for each poll since 2010.
You can follow the HPU Poll on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SurveyResearchCenter and Twitter at http://twitter.com/HPUSurveyCenter.
Dr. Martin Kifer, assistant professor of political science, serves as the director of the HPU Poll, and Brian McDonald serves as the assistant director of the HPU Poll.