Hagan widens lead on Tillis
Published July 23, 2014
by PPP, July 22, 2014.
The latest PPP poll shows incumbent Democratic Senator Kay Hagan growing a lead over Republican State House Speaker Thom Tillis. Hagan leads Tillis 41/34 with Libertarian Sean Haugh receiving 8% of the vote and 16% of voters still undecided. The gap between Hagan and Tillis is even wider among women where Hagan leads Tillis 44/27.
Tillis is forced to contend with incredibly low approval numbers; both personally and in terms of the statewide perception of the legislature. Tillis has a 24% favorability rating compared to 47% unfavorable. The Legislature has a 19% approval rating and a 57% disapproval rating; even among Republican voters the Legislature faces a 44% disapproval while only 31% of Republicans approve of the Legislature. In addition, statewide Republicans within the Legislature have a 31% favorability rating to 52% unfavorable.
Hagan herself is facing an uphill battle in terms of approval, 40% of statewide voters approve of Hagan’s job performance to 50% who disapprove. Hagan has a stronger base than Tillis does. Hagan’s approval among Democrats is at 66% while Tillis’ favorability among Republicans is only 39%.
The Legislature faces additional unpopularity on the issue of teacher pay. Across the state 54% of voters do not believe that the Legislature is making a good faith effort to raise teacher pay while only 31% believe that are making a good-faith effort.
“Kay Hagan’s lead just continues to rise as the legislature spends longer and longer and longer in session,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “The big question though is whether she’ll be able to sustain this bigger lead once they’ve gone home, or if the race will quickly return back to normal like it did last year.”
PPP surveyed 1062 North Carolina voters from July 17th to 20th. The margin of error for the sample is +/-3.0 %. 80% of interviews for the poll were conducted over the phone with 20% interviewed over the internet to reach respondents who don’t have landline telephones.
Topline results are below. Full results, including crosstabs, can be found here.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2014/07/hagan-widens-lead-on-tillis.html#more
