HPU Poll: Majority of North Carolinians Say Country Headed in Wrong Direction

HIGH POINT, N.C., July 24, 2026 – In the latest High Point University Poll, North Carolinians gave President Donald Trump an approval rating of 38%, while 50% disapproved. In the same poll, North Carolinians gave Governor Josh Stein a job approval rating of 44%, with 27% expressing disapproval.

The poll asked respondents to provide their opinions on the job President Trump has done in handling a variety of issues. His highest approval ratings were for securing the U.S. southern border (46%), national security in general (45%) and immigration in general (44%).

More than four in 10 respondents approved of his handling of law enforcement (42%), protecting American workers (42%) and voting integrity (41%). Four in 10 approved of his handling of fighting government fraud and corruption (40%).

Smaller proportions of respondents approved of President Trump’s handling of civil rights (39%), school safety (38%), education (37%), abortion (37%), protecting democracy (37%), threats posed by Iran (36%), health care in general (35%), international trade in general (35%), mental health (34%) and LGBTQ policies (34%).

President Trump’s approval ratings on tariffs (32%), climate change (30%), taxes (30%), the economy in general (30%), the war in Ukraine (30%), inflation (26%) and gas prices (24%) were the lowest recorded.

When asked if they approved or disapproved of the way the U.S. Supreme Court is handling its job, 32% indicated they approved, while 43% disapproved. About three in 10 North Carolinians approved (28%) of the way the U.S. Congress is handling its job, and 49% said they disapproved.

A relatively large majority of North Carolinians (58%) said that the country is on wrong track, while less than one-third (29%) said that the country was headed in the right direction. About one-third of the respondents (33%) said the state of North Carolina was headed in the right direction, while 47% said that it was on the wrong track.

North Carolina Residents – Country Direction (July 2026)

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 — 29%

Wrong track — 58%

Unsure — 12%

North Carolina Residents – State Direction (July 2026)

Do you think things in North Carolina [are generally going in the right direction or do you feel things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track]?

Right direction — 33%

Wrong track — 47%

Unsure — 20% 

North Carolina Residents – Presidential Approval (July 2026)

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

Approve — 38%

Disapprove — 50%

Unsure — 12%

North Carolina Residents – Gov. Stein Approval (July 2026)

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

Approve — 44%

Disapprove — 27%

Unsure — 30%

North Carolina Residents – U.S. Supreme Court Approval (July 2026)

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

Approve — 32%

Disapprove — 43%

Unsure — 25%

North Carolina Residents – U.S. Congress Approval (July 2026)

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

Approve — 28%

Disapprove — 49%

Unsure — 23%

North Carolina Residents – Donald Trump Issues Approval (July 2026)

Below is a list of issues that President Trump has to deal with. Please tell me whether you [approve or disapprove] of President Trump’s handling of each issue.

Methodology:

HPU Poll 124 was fielded by the High Point University Survey Research Center (SRC) from July 1-11, 2026, as an online survey using a non-probability panel of respondents recruited and maintained by Cint. Cint invited members of its North Carolina panel, and the SRC collected 1,005 responses from adults, including 772 respondents who said they were registered to vote, through its Qualtrics platform. All interviews were conducted in English. The SRC drafted the survey instrument, which was approved by the High Point University Institutional Review Board, and conducted all data analysis. CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA measures, along with Cint’s screening procedures, were used to help identify non-human respondents.

Because participation in the online panel does not follow the assumptions associated with random selection, it is not appropriate to assign a traditional margin of sampling error to the results. For the all-adults sample, the SRC provides a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. This interval accounts for a traditional 95% confidence interval of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points and a design effect of 1.1 based on the weighting.

The SRC worked with Cint to fill quotas for age, gender, race and ethnicity. The all-adults data was weighted toward population estimates for age, gender, race, education and ethnicity published by the U.S. Census, as well as national polling data on party identification. The SRC produces weights through an iterative procedure within SPSS. Factors such as question wording and other methodological choices may introduce additional sources of error into public opinion poll findings.

High Point University sponsored and funded the survey. Additional results and methodological information are available on the Survey Research Center website. The HPU Poll reports methodological details according to the standards of AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, of which the HPU Survey Research Center is a Charter Member.

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

Dr. J.R. Moller serves as staff director.

Tiffany Medford serves as program coordinator.