HPU poll: Obama 44%, McCrory 41%

by High Point University Survey Research Center, published February 9, 2015.

The HPU Poll finds that 44 percent of North Carolina residents approve of President Barack Obama’s job performance. The poll, the first HPU Poll of 2015, places Gov. Pat McCrory’s job performance at 41 percent.

Forty-seven percent and 37 percent disapprove of Obama and McCrory’s job performance, respectively.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Thom Tillis have job approval ratings of 30 and 28 percent, respectively. Thirty-seven percent disapproved of Tillis’s performance while 31 percent disapproved of Burr’s performance.

However, many North Carolinians are unwilling to even offer an opinion of the two Senators. Fully 39 percent of North Carolina adults expressed no opinion one way or another on Burr’s job performance, and more than a third (35 percent) of respondents had said they did not know or refused to comment on the newly elected Tillis’s performance in office.

The poll also finds one quarter (25 percent) of the same respondents believe the country is headed in the right direction, versus almost two-thirds (64 percent) of North Carolina residents who see the country as being on the wrong track. This is very similar to what the last HPU Poll of 2014 found. In November, the HPU Poll reported that 25 percent of North Carolinians believed the country was headed in the right direction, versus 67 percent who saw the country as being on the wrong track.

“The HPU Poll’s first poll of the new year shows that North Carolinians are not viewing their elected officials at the state and national level in much different light than they did just after the 2014 elections,” says Dr. Martin Kifer, assistant professor of political science and director of the HPU Poll. “The lack of improvement in the direction of the country question only underscores that the general mood of the state has not lifted very much even as we are getting better economic news.”

All adults – Presidential job approval February 2015

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

Approve – 44 percent

Disapprove – 47 percent

Don’t know/refuse – 9 percent

(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, 2015, n = 417 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)

All adults – Governor job approval February 2015

Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Pat McCrory is handling his job as governor?

Approve – 41 percent

Disapprove – 37 percent

Don’t know/refuse – 23 percent

(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, 2015, n = 417 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)

All adults – Senator Burr job approval February 2015

Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Richard Burr is handling his job as United States Senator?

Approve – 30 percent

Disapprove – 31 percent

Don’t know/refuse – 39 percent

(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, 2015, n = 417 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)

All adults – Senator Tillis job approval February 2015

Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Thom Tillis is handling his job as United States Senator?

Approve – 28 percent

Disapprove – 37 percent

Don’t know/refuse – 35 percent

(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, 2015, n = 417 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)

All adults – country direction February 2015

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 – 25 percent

Wrong track – 64 percent

Don’t know/refused – 11 percent

(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, 2015, n = 417 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)

From the November 2014 Post Election HPU Poll

All adults – Presidential job approval November 2014

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

Approve – 43 percent

Disapprove – 49 percent

Don’t know/refuse – 8 percent

(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Nov. 8 – 13, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent.

All adults – Governor job approval November 2014

Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Pat McCrory is handling his job as governor?

Approve – 47 percent

Disapprove – 37 percent

Don’t know/refuse – 16 percent

(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Nov. 8 – 13, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)

All adults – Senator Burr job approval November 2014

Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Richard Burr is handling his job as United States Senator?

Approve – 29 percent

Disapprove – 28 percent

Don’t know/refuse – 43 percent

(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Nov. 8 – 13, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)

All adults – country direction November 2014

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 – 25 percent

Wrong track – 67 percent

Don’t know/refused – 8 percent

(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed Nov. 8 – 13, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)

The November survey was fielded by live interviewers at the High Point University Survey Research Center calling on Nov. 8-13, 2014. The responses from a sample of all North Carolina counties came from 421 adults with landline or cellular telephones. The Survey Research Center contracted with Survey Sampling International to acquire this sample. The survey has an estimated margin of sampling error of approximately 4.8 percentage points for these respondents. The data are weighted toward population estimates for cellular and landline telephone use, age, gender and race. In addition to sampling error, factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional error into the findings of opinion polls.

The most recent HPU Poll was fielded by live interviewers at the High Point University Survey Research Center calling on Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, 2015. The responses from a sample of all North Carolina counties came from 417 adults with landline or cellular telephones. The Survey Research Center contracted with Survey Sampling International to acquire this sample. The survey has an estimated margin of sampling error of approximately 4.8 percentage points for all adult respondents. The data are weighted toward population estimates for cellular and landline telephone use, age, gender and race.  In addition to sampling error, factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional error into the findings of opinion polls. Details from this survey are available at http://www.highpoint.edu/src/files/2015/02/35memoA.pdf.

Further results and methodological details from the most recent survey and past studies can be found at the Survey Research Center website at http://www.highpoint.edu/src/. 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. For more information, see http://transparency.aapor.org/index.php/transparency.

You can follow the HPU Poll on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HPUSurveyCenter.

Dr. Martin Kifer, assistant professor of political science, serves as the director of the HPU Poll, and Brian McDonald serves as the assistant director of the HPU Poll.

http://www.highpoint.edu/blog/2015/02/hpu-poll-obama-approval-at-44-percent-mccrory-at-41/