High Point Poll: Presidential approval at 35%, Governor approval at 47% in North Carolina

In a new High Point University Poll, North Carolinians gave President Joe Biden a job approval rating of 35%. More than half (53%) of North Carolina residents said they disapprove of the job President Biden is doing.

The HPU Poll asked North Carolinians on their approval of how President Biden is handling several different issues. About one-third of respondents said they approved of his handling of COVID-19 (40%), education (34%), health care in general (33%), the environment in general (31%), foreign policy in general (30%) and climate change (30%). Fewer respondents approved of President Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine (28%), the economy in general (26%), inflation (19%) and gas prices (18%).

These same respondents gave Gov. Roy Cooper a job approval rating of 47%, while 31% said they disapprove and 23% did not offer an opinion either way. When asked about the U.S. Congress, respondents gave a job approval rating of 26%, while 56% said they disapprove and 17% did not offer an opinion either way.

About three out of five (63%) of North Carolinians said the country is off on the wrong track. Just more than one-quarter (26%) of those same respondents said the country is headed in the right direction.

The HPU Poll also asked North Carolina residents about their choice for U.S. Congress in 2022. When asked how they would vote if the elections for U.S. Congress were held today, North Carolinians are divided, with 41% choosing the Republican candidate and 35% choosing the Democratic candidate.

“Not much has changed in our latest HPU Poll regarding the approval of President Biden and Gov. Cooper,” says Brian McDonald, associate director of the HPU Poll and adjunct instructor. “These ratings give us insight into how North Carolina residents feel their elected leaders are doing their job.”

NC residents – Country Direction (March 2022)

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 – 26%

Wrong track – 63%

Don’t know/refused – 11%

(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Mar. 18 – Mar. 31, 2022, n = 889 and credibility interval is +/- 3.5%)

NC residents – Presidential Job Approval (March 2022)

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

Approve – 35%

Disapprove – 53%

Don’t know/refused – 12%

(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Mar. 18 – Mar. 31, 2022, n = 889 and credibility interval is +/- 3.5%)

NC residents – Presidential Issue Handling (March 2022)

Would you say you approve or disapprove of how President Biden is handling each of these issues? (ISSUES PRESENTED IN RANDOMIZED ORDER)

 (Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Mar. 18 – Mar. 31, 2022, n = 889 and credibility interval is +/- 3.5%)

NC residents – NC Governor Approval (March 2022)

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Roy Cooper is handling his job as Governor of North Carolina?

Approve – 47%

Disapprove – 31%

Don’t know/refused – 23%

(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Mar. 18 – Mar. 31, 2022, n = 889 and credibility interval is +/- 3.5%)

NC residents – US Congress Approval (March 2022)

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

Approve –26%

Disapprove – 56%

Don’t know/refused – 17%

(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Mar. 18 – Mar. 31, 2022, n = 889 and credibility interval is +/- 3.5%)

NC residents – Generic Ballot for Congressional Elections (March 2022)

If the elections for U.S. Congress were being held today, would you vote for the “Republican Party’s candidate” or the “Democratic Party’s candidate” for Congress in your district?

Republican candidate – 41%

Democratic candidate – 35%

Other – 5%

Don’t know/Undecided – 18%

Refused – 1%

(Telephone and online interviews with North Carolina residents, surveyed Mar. 18 – Mar. 31, 2022, n = 889 and credibility interval is +/- 3.5%)

The most recent HPU Poll was fielded by live interviewers at the High Point University Survey Research Center calling on March 18 through March 31, 2022, and an online survey was fielded at the same time. The responses from a sample of all North Carolina counties came from 889 adults interviewed online (803 respondents) as well as landline or cellular telephones (86 respondents). The Survey Research Center contracted with dynata, formerly Research Now SSI, to acquire these samples, and fielded the online survey using the SRC’s Qualtrics platform. This is a combined sample of live phone interviews and online interviews. The online sampling 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 3.5 percentage points to account for a traditional 95% confidence interval for the estimates (plus or minus 3.3 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.12 (based on the weighting). The data is weighted toward population estimates for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and education based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. The final stage of weighting ensures proper weighting of the online and live interviews. Factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional errors into the findings of opinion polls. Details from this survey areavailable here.

Further results and methodological details from the most recent survey and past studies can be found at the Survey Research Center website. The 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. See more information here.

You can follow the HPU Poll Twitter here.

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.