HPU Poll: North Carolinians Say School Safety and Inflation Are Top National Issues

U.S. and North Carolina Institutions Receive Low Approval and Favorability Ratings.

HIGH POINT, N.C., Sept. 14, 2023 – In a new High Point University Poll, more North Carolina residents say school safety (74%) and inflation (73%) are very important issues for policymakers in Washington, D.C., to deal with than any of the other issues in the poll.

More than two-thirds of North Carolinians also say that education (68%), national security (68%) and health care (67%) are very important for D.C. policymakers to deal with.

Majorities of these same respondents say that supporting veterans (65%), gas prices (63%), taxes (62%), civil rights (61%), protecting democracy (61%), law enforcement (59%), voting integrity (59%), guns (56%), and immigration (52%) are very important issues for Washington to deal with.

Less than 50% of the North Carolina respondents to the poll say that climate change (47%), abortion (46%), COVID-19 (38%), and the war in Ukraine (29%) are very important issues for policymakers in D.C. to deal with.

The poll also asked North Carolinians which political party in Washington, D.C., would do a better job dealing with each of the issues. There was at least a 10% difference between how much better North Carolinians say Republicans deal with the issues of national security (14%), law enforcement (13%), gas prices (11%), supporting veterans (10%), and inflation (10%) compared to Democrats. Democrats have an advantage of 10% or more on the issues of climate change (13%) and civil rights (10%).

Democrats might have smaller advantages on issues like abortion (8% difference between the parties), health care in general (7%), and COVID-19 (6%). Republicans probably have smaller advantages on issues like immigration (8% difference between the parties) and taxes (6%). There is not much difference between how well North Carolinians overall think Republicans and Democrats deal with issues like voting integrity, guns, protecting democracy, the war in Ukraine, education and school safety.

North Carolinians gave President Joe Biden a job approval rating of 33%. More than half (54%) of North Carolina residents say they disapprove of the job President Biden is doing.

When asked about how things were going in the U.S. Congress, about one-quarter (19%) of North Carolinians said they approved of the job Congress is doing. A majority (64%) said they disapproved of how Congress is doing its job. About another quarter (17%) did not offer an opinion.

Almost three-quarters (70%) of North Carolinians said the country is on the wrong track, while 18% of those same respondents said the country is headed in the right direction. Only 11% did not offer an opinion either way.

The poll also asked North Carolinians whether they have favorable or unfavorable views about a list of people or things that are in the news. More than one-third of respondents had a favorable view of Ukraine (46%), Donald Trump (41%), the North Carolina Supreme Court (36%), the North Carolina General Assembly (36%), Taiwan (36%), Joe Biden (35%), and the U.S. Supreme Court (34%).

More than half of North Carolinians have an unfavorable view of the U.S. Congress (59%), China (70%), and Russia (77%).

“As we have seen in recent months, inflation continues to be on the minds of people here in North Carolina,” said Dr. Martin Kifer, chair of HPU’s Department of Political Science and director of the HPU Poll. “It is potentially a voting issue, so we will be looking carefully at these same indicators as the 2024 primary and general election campaigns proceed.”

NC residents – Country Direction (August/September 2023)

Do you think things in this country are generally going in the right direction or do you feel things have gotten pretty seriously off track?

Right direction – 18%

Wrong track – 70%

Unsure – 11%

NC residents – Presidential Approval (August/September 2023)

Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Joe Biden is handling his job as president?

Approve – 33%

Disapprove – 54%

Unsure – 13%

NC residents – Approval of the U.S. Congress (August/September 2023)

Do you approve or disapprove of the way that the U.S. Congress is handling its job?

Approve – 19%

Disapprove – 64%

Unsure – 17% 

NC residents – Favorability (August/September 2023)

Here is a list of people and things. Please indicate whether you have [a favorable or an unfavorable] view of each of them. [Items presented in a random order]

NC residents – Issue Importance (August/September 2023)

How important do you think it is for policymakers in Washington, D.C., to deal with each of these issues? Would you say very important, somewhat important, not very important, or not at all important? [Items presented in a random order]

NC residents – Issue Importance (August/September 2023)

Below is a list of issues that political parties in Washington, D.C., might have to deal with. For each issue, please tell me whether you think the [Democratic Party or the Republican Party] would do a better job dealing with the issue. [Items presented in a random order]

HPU Poll 97 was fielded by the High Point University Survey Research Center on Aug. 29 through Sept. 6 as an online survey using a panel of respondents recruited and maintained by Dynata. Dynata sent invitations to its panel of N.C. respondents and the SRC collected 1,000 responses on its Qualtrics platform. The SRC did all data analysis. The online sample 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 3.3 percentage points to account for a traditional 95% confidence interval for the estimates (plus or minus 3.1 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.1 (based on the weighting). The data is weighed toward population estimates for age, gender, race/ethnicity and education based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. Factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional errors into the findings of opinion polls.

Further results and methodological details from the most recent survey and past surveys can be found at the Survey Research Center website. 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.

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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.