HIGH POINT, N.C., Feb. 3, 2014 – A new HPU Poll finds that 40 percent of North Carolina residents approve of President Barack Obama’s job performance while 37 percent approve of Gov. Pat McCrory’s job performance. Fifty-four percent and 40 percent disapproved of President Obama and Gov. McCrory’s job performance, respectively.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senators Kay Hagan and Richard Burr have job approval ratings of 33 and 29 percent, respectively. Forty-three percent disapproved of Hagan’s job performance, while 29 percent disapproved of Burr’s job performance.
Approval ratings for state and federal legislatures were also included in the survey. North Carolinians gave the U.S. Congress an approval rating of 12 percent and gave the North Carolina General Assembly an approval rating of 32 percent.
The poll also finds less than a quarter (23 percent) of the same respondents believe the country is headed in the right direction versus almost two-thirds (65 percent) of North Carolina residents who see the country as being on the wrong track.
“The first HPU Poll of 2014 does not show improvement in North Carolinians’ ratings of their representatives,” said Dr. Sadie Leder Elder, assistant professor of psychology and associate director of the HPU Poll. “This reflects a general dissatisfaction we have been seeing consistently for some time. This year is an election year, and the standing of public officials will have an impact on how people vote income November.”
All adults – Presidential job approval
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Barack Obama is handling his job as president?
Approve – 40 percent
Disapprove – 54 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 6 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Governor job approval
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Pat McCrory is handling his job as governor?
Approve – 37 percent
Disapprove – 40 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 23 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Senator Hagan job approval
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Kay Hagan is handling her job as United States Senator?
Approve – 33 percent
Disapprove – 43 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 25 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Senator Burr job approval
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Richard Burr is handling his job as United States Senator?
Approve – 29 percent
Disapprove – 29 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 42 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults –Congress and N.C. General Assembly
What about legislators in Raleigh? Do you approve or disapprove of the way that the North Carolina General Assembly is handling its job?
Approve – 32 percent
Disapprove – 51 percent
Don’t know/refused – 17 percent
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that the U.S. Congress is handling its job?
Approve – 12 percent
Disapprove – 80 percent
Don’t know/refused – 8 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Country direction
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 – 23 percent
Wrong track – 65 percent
Don’t know/refused – 12 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 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 Jan. 26 – 30, 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.
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 on-line 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 Dr. Sadie Leder Elder, assistant professor of psychology, serves as the associate director of the HPU Poll.