HPU poll: Obama at 40 percent approval, McCrory at 37 percent
Published February 4, 2014
by High Point University, published February 3, 2014.
A new HPU Poll finds that 40 percent of North Carolina residents approve of President Barack Obama’s job performance while 37 percent approve of Gov. Pat McCrory’s job performance. Fifty-four percent and 40 percent disapproved of President Obama and Gov. McCrory’s job performance, respectively.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senators Kay Hagan and Richard Burr have job approval ratings of 33 and 29 percent, respectively. Forty-three percent disapproved of Hagan’s job performance, while 29 percent disapproved of Burr’s job performance.
Approval ratings for state and federal legislatures were also included in the survey. North Carolinians gave the U.S. Congress an approval rating of 12 percent and gave the North Carolina General Assembly an approval rating of 32 percent.
The poll also finds less than a quarter (23 percent) of the same respondents believe the country is headed in the right direction versus almost two-thirds (65 percent) of North Carolina residents who see the country as being on the wrong track.
“The first HPU Poll of 2014 does not show improvement in North Carolinians’ ratings of their representatives,” said Dr. Sadie Leder Elder, assistant professor of psychology and associate director of the HPU Poll. “This reflects a general dissatisfaction we have been seeing consistently for some time. This year is an election year, and the standing of public officials will have an impact on how people vote income November.”
All adults – Presidential job approval
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Barack Obama is handling his job as president?
Approve – 40 percent
Disapprove – 54 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 6 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Governor job approval
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Pat McCrory is handling his job as governor?
Approve – 37 percent
Disapprove – 40 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 23 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Senator Hagan job approval
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Kay Hagan is handling her job as United States Senator?
Approve – 33 percent
Disapprove – 43 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 25 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Senator Burr job approval
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Richard Burr is handling his job as United States Senator?
Approve – 29 percent
Disapprove – 29 percent
Don’t know/refuse – 42 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults –Congress and N.C. General Assembly
What about legislators in Raleigh? Do you approve or disapprove of the way that the North Carolina General Assembly is handling its job?
Approve – 32 percent
Disapprove – 51 percent
Don’t know/refused – 17 percent
Do you approve or disapprove of the way that the U.S. Congress is handling its job?
Approve – 12 percent
Disapprove – 80 percent
Don’t know/refused – 8 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
All adults – Country direction
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 – 23 percent
Wrong track – 65 percent
Don’t know/refused – 12 percent
(All adult (North Carolina resident) sample surveyed January 26 – 30, 2014, n = 421 and margin of sampling error approximately = +/- 4.8 percent)
The most recent survey was fielded by live interviewers at the High Point University Survey Research Center calling on Jan. 26 – 30, 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.
February 4, 2014 at 10:01 am
Norm Kelly says:
I'm surprised by the results of this survey. Many media outlets go out of their way, above & beyond, to support Barack, his policies, and his administration. And still 54% of respondents say they disapprove of his job performance. I'm sure at this point many, many people in media, at CNN, MSNBC, the Raleigh N&D, are scratching their collective heads wondering what it takes for them to get his ratings higher. It seems to me that these outlets and many others have gone so far to support Barack, to paint his picture so brightly, refusing to say ANYTHING negative about him, that their ratings of him alone would top out in excess of 100% approval.
Besides knowing K by name, who knows anything about her or what she's done or said since getting to Washington? How can anyone have an opinion about K? I'm on her email propaganda list and still know virtually nothing about her or her positions or her votes. I can't imagine there are too many of K's voters, uninformed as they are, who even remember her name once they step away from the voting place. Disapproval of only 43%? Don't know/refuse of only 25%? These numbers seem out of line. I would expect more than 50% of respondents would say they don't know who K is in this type of survey. I would expect extremely few to either approve or disapprove of K as senator. Since she doesn't do or say anything, how can there be an opinion? Since she came out in support of a complete take over of the medical industry, what else has she said or done? And it seems that terribly few people even know she said this. I'd be surprised if more than 10% of her supporters know she said this.
Pat has 37% support, those who think he's doing a good job? More proof that fewer people are paying attention to media types. More proof that more people are getting their info from reliable sources. People who are intent on educating themselves know that what they hear in the media is pure Democrat propaganda and choose to ignore it. Educated people know that what they read in N&D editorials only closely resembles the truth, so know to ignore it. Thank God for alternative news sources, where truth and the full story can be found.
One can only hope that future polls will continue to show the affect of the media is less & less all the time. Eventually, either media outlets will change their ways or more of us will find other sources for real information. Now, if I could only convince the N&D reader in the house what a waste of time, money, etc. subscribing to the N&D really is.
February 4, 2014 at 3:37 pm
Bill Morris says:
How can a survey of this nature, given the vehement partisanship in the State today, have any significance without giving participants the opportunity to identify Party affiliation?
