Donald Trump is not only beating all his Republican primary foes in North Carolina, he would top Hillary Clinton there, according to a new poll.
The New York billionaire’s lead over the remaining GOP hopefuls has grown 8 percentage points since last month, putting him at 24 percent support among North Carolina Republicans in the latest Public Policy Polling survey.
Forty-seven percent of voters in the swing state view Trump favorably and 50 percent of survey respondents identifying as “very liberal” hold positive views of the real estate magnate.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is the most likable candidate in the state, with a favorability rating of 66 percent to just 11 percent unfavorable, followed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the least-liked candidate in the state with 55 percent of voters viewing him unfavorably.
Trump maintains his No. 1 spot among Republican candidates across different demographics as well. The former reality TV host leads the GOP field with moderates (29 percent), middle-aged voters (26 percent), younger voters (25 percent) and both “somewhat conservative” and “very conservative” voters (25 and 21 percent, respectively). Trump also does better than any other GOP candidate among both male and female voters in the state.
Despite leading the field in general, Trump would lose in individual primary matchups against Carson (59-35), Rubio (51-43), and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (50-43). However, when put head-to-head with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the bombastic businessman leads 50-42 percent.
Clinton continues to lead the Democratic pool of candidates at 55 percent, but loses in hypothetical matchups with more than half of the Republican candidates, including Trump.
As it stands now, the former secretary of state would lose the swing state to Trump (45-42), Rubio (45-41), Ohio Gov. John Kasich (41-40), Carson (47-40), Huckabee (46-44), and former business executive Carly Fiorina (42-41). In a matchup with Bush, the two currently tie at 42 percent.
PPP, a Democratic polling firm, conducted the latest survey of 957 voters between Aug. 12-16. The poll has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.
