Hillary Clinton carries a single-point lead over Donald Trump in the battleground state of North Carolina, according to a new poll taken before the Republican presidential hopeful was rocked by the release of an audio tape in which he made lewd and sexually explicit remarks about women.
Forty-three percent of likely voters in the Tar Heel State support the former secretary of state in the High Point University poll released Monday, while 42 percent back Trump. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson secured 8 percent support, while 4 percent of respondents were still undecided just over a month before Election Day.
Clinton has maintained a consistent but small lead over Trump in North Carolina, according to state-level polls taken since mid-September. But the GOP nominee’s campaign has continued to invest in airtime in the crucial battleground, where Trump carried 40 percent of the vote in the Republican primary.
Two prominent Republicans in the state, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and Sen. Richard Burr, both denounced Trump’s comments in the leaked audio tape from 2005, though neither of the men, both of whom face tough re-lection contests, rescinded their previous endorsement of the billionaire.
“I am going to watch his level of contrition over the next few days to determine my level of support,” Burr told the New York Times on Sunday.
McCrory currently trails his Democratic challenger, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, by 7 percentage points in the gubernatorial race, while Burr maintains a 5-point lead over Democratic Senate candidate Deborah Ross.
Overall, 45 percent of likely voters in North Carolina plan to vote for Republican congressional candidates when they cast their ballot on Nov. 8 versus 42 percent who plan to support the Democratic Party.
The High Point University poll of 479 likely North Carolina voters was conducted between Oct. 1-6, three days before voters tuned in to watch the second presidential debate Sunday evening. Results contain a margin of error plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
