Clinton leads in NC for first time since March

Source: Public Policy Polling

PPP's newest North Carolina poll finds Hillary Clinton leading in the state, albeit by a narrow margin, for the first time since March. She's at 43% to 41% for Donald Trump, 7% for Gary Johnson, and 2% for Jill Stein. In a head to head contest just between Clinton and Trump, she leads 47/46.

Voters haven't changed their feelings much about Clinton since our June poll in the state- her favorability rating was 39/55 then and it's 40/55 now. But Trump- already unpopular- has become even more so. He's seen a 7 point decline in his net popularity from -14 at 38/52 down to -21 at 37/58. His missteps from the last few weeks may be further damaging his reputation.

One finding from the poll that bodes particularly well for Clinton is that voters would prefer a continuation of the Obama administration to Trump's vision for the country, 50/45. When you look at who the undecideds are in the Clinton/Trump head to head it fits what we've found in our other recent polls. By a 33 point margin they prefer Obama over Trump and they have a positive view of Bernie Sanders, giving him a 45/28 favorability. They hate Trump- giving him a 1/94 favorability- but they're not much more favorable toward Clinton who comes in at 2/75. Because of the direction these folks prefer for the country it seems much more likely that they'll end up voting Clinton than Trump- or perhaps more likely than anything else staying home. At any rate it's more likely that they'll build Clinton's lead than eat into it when they come off the fence, and that's good news for Clinton given the advantage she already has.

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-69% of Trump voters think that if Hillary Clinton wins the election it will be because it was rigged, to only 16% who think it would be because she got more vote than Trump. More specifically 40% of Trump voters think that ACORN (which hasn't existed in years) will steal the election for Clinton. That shows the long staying power of GOP conspiracy theories.

Read more: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/08/clinton-leads-in-nc-for-first-time-since-march.html