HPU Poll: North Carolinian Approval Ratings for Public Officials and Institutions

North Carolinian respondents expressed an approval rating of 41% for President Donald J. Trump, a disapproval rating of 47%, and 12% indicated no opinion either way.

HIGH POINT, N.C., Sept. 24, 2025 – The most recent High Point University poll includes approval ratings for a number of national and North Carolina public officials and institutions.

North Carolinian respondents expressed an approval rating of 41% for President Donald J. Trump, a disapproval rating of 47%, and 12% indicated no opinion either way. In the same poll, North Carolinians gave Governor Josh Stein a job approval rating of 46%, 24% expressed disapproval, and 30% expressed no opinion.

The poll asked the respondents to provide their opinions on a variety of issues that Gov. Josh Stein has encountered. Approximately half of respondents approved of how Gov. Stein was handling issues like supporting veterans (51%), voting integrity (50%), civil rights (49%), and recovery from Hurricane Helene (49%).

Smaller proportions of respondents approved of the governor’s handling of law enforcement (48%), school safety (48%), agriculture (48%), education (47%), transportation infrastructure (46%), job creation (45%), and health care in general (44%).

About two in five North Carolinians said they approved of the governor’s handling of Medicaid (42%), guns (41%), opioids like Fentanyl (41%), rural development (40%), climate change (39%), abortion (38%), immigration (38%), and cybersecurity (38%). Gov. Stein’s approval ratings on housing prices (34%), taxes (33%), LGBTQ policies (31%) and inflation (29%) were the lowest recorded.

When asked if they approved or disapproved of the way that the United States Supreme Court is handling its job, 35% indicated that they approved, while 42% disapproved, and 23% offered no opinion. In reflecting on whether they approved or disapproved of the way the North Carolina Supreme Court is handling its job, 33% approved, 29% disapproved, and 37% had no opinion.

About half of North Carolinians disapproved (49%) of the way U.S. Congress is handling its job. Approvals came from 31% of respondents, and 20% had no opinion. When asked about how North Carolina’s General Assembly is handling its job, 35% approved, 32% disapproved, and 33% offered no opinion.

North Carolina Residents – Presidential Approval (August – September 2025)

Do you [approve or disapprove] of the way that Donald Trump is handling his job as president?

Approve – 41%

Disapprove – 47%

Unsure – 12%

North Carolina Residents – U.S. Supreme Court Approval (August – September 2025)

Do you [approve or disapprove] of the way that the United States Supreme Court is handling its job?

Approve – 35%

Disapprove – 42%

Unsure – 23%

North Carolina Residents – N.C. Supreme Court Approval (August – September 2025)

Do you [approve or disapprove] of the way that North Carolina’s Supreme Court is handling its job?

Approve – 33%

Disapprove – 29%

Unsure – 37%

North Carolina Residents – U.S. Congress Approval (August – September 2025)

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

Approve – 31%

Disapprove – 49%

Unsure – 20%

North Carolina Residents – N.C. General Assembly Approval (August – September 2025)

Do you [approve or disapprove] of the way that North Carolina’s General Assembly is handling its job?

Approve – 35%

Disapprove – 32%

Unsure – 33%

North Carolina Residents – Gov. Josh Stein Approval (August – September 2025)

Do you [approve or disapprove] of the way that Josh Stein is handling his job as governor?

Approve – 46%

Disapprove – 24%

Unsure – 30%

Methodology:

HPU Poll 113 was fielded by the High Point University Survey Research Center on Aug. 27 through Sept. 11 as an online survey using a panel of respondents recruited and maintained by Dynata. Dynata sent invitations to its panel of North Carolina respondents and the SRC collected 950 responses (an all-adults sample) on its Qualtrics platform. All respondents were asked two screening questions to identify them as registered voters. A total of 792 respondents identified themselves as registered voters. 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, for the all-adults sample, 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 3.2 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.1 (based on the weighting). The all-adults data is weighted toward population estimates for age, gender, race, education, and ethnicity based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. The High Point University Survey Research Center (SRC) produces weights through an iterative procedure within SPSS. 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.

Dr. Martin Kifer, chair and professor of political science, serves as the executive director of the HPU Poll for the Survey Research Center.

Dr. J.R. Moller serves as the staff director of the HPU Poll for the Survey Research Center.