Poll: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in tight race in North Carolina
Hillary Clinton narrowly leads Donald Trump in North Carolina, according to a Monmouth University survey released Wednesday.
The poll found Clinton leads Trump by just 2 percentage points -- 44 percent to 42 percent. Seven percent of likely voters in North Carolina said they support Libertarian Gary Johnson and 1 percent named another candidate. Six percent said they are undecided.
Forty-four percent of North Carolina’s independent voters said they back Trump while only 30 percent said they support Clinton. Fifteen percent of independents said they support Johnson.
Just over 90 percent of Democrats said they support Clinton for president while 86 percent of Republicans said they back the GOP presidential nominee.
The survey found Trump leads Clinton among both white men and white women but is trailing Clinton among white voters with college degrees.
As for the state’s Senate race, GOP incumbent Sen. Richard Burr narrowly leads his Democratic challenger, Deborah Ross, by only 2 percentage points -- 45 percent to 43 percent.
The poll found that a majority of voters, 55 percent, disapprove of the state’s controversial law that prohibits local governments from allowing for transgender public bathrooms. Thirty-six percent, by contrast, approve of the law.
In June, a CBS News battleground tracker poll found that 44 percent of North Carolina voters supported Clinton and 42 percent backed Trump. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released earlier this month found that Clinton led Trump 48 percent to 39 percent in North Carolina.
Mitt Romney won North Carolina in 2012, but President Obama carried the state in 2008.
The Monmouth poll surveyed 401 North Carolina likely voters between August 20 and 23 with a 4.9 percentage point margin of error.
