Cooper Up by 9; Trump Still Slumps

Our new statewide poll shows that Roy Cooper still has a strong lead in the U.S. Senate race, Donald Trump’s approval ratings are abysmal and Trump’s unpopularity gives Democrats a big edge three months before the November mid-term elections.

The headlines:

· Cooper leads Michael Whatley by 50-41%, almost exactly the same as our poll found in February, when Cooper led 50-40%. Recent news reports that the race is “getting closer” just aren’t true. At least, not yet.

· Trump’s unfavorable-favorable rating is 57-37%, slightly worse than February. The words voters chose most often to describe him are “childish … corrupt … vindictive … incompetent … declining … dictator.”

· Trump is a drag on Republicans. By 48-40%, voters say they will vote for a Democrat over a Republican for the General Assembly. If this holds, Democrats could pick up several seats in both houses.

· Democrat Anita Earls leads Republican Sarah Stevens by 45-39% in the state Supreme Court race. In February, Earls led by 45-43%.

· As we saw in February, North Carolina voters still trust Democratic Governor Josh Stein over the Republican legislature “to govern fairly and with the people’s best interests in mind.” Stein leads on that measure by 39-27% now; he led by 43-29% in February.

This poll, like February’s, is a joint effort by myself, Sam Hunt (former Democratic legislator and Secretary of Transportation under Governor Jim Hunt - no relation) and Stephen Clermont with Change Research in Washington.

I’ll be digging deeper into the poll - and sharing detailed results - in the days ahead.

The poll was conducted online from July 29th - August 1st, 2026. Using Dynamic Online Sampling to attain a representative sample, Change Research polled 967 voters in North Carolina. Post-stratification was performed on age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, region, party registration, and 2024 presidential vote. The survey has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.