By Michael Bitzer
We've been fairly quiet here at Old North State Politics, but it doesn't mean things haven't been happening. In February, Catawba College and the Carter Center hosted the final meeting of the Commission on the Future of NC Elections, which released a 200-page report on eleven different aspects of what it takes to run an election in the state. I hope you'll find time to read and digest the important information from it.
And in other news: Catawba just released the findings of a new YouGov survey of 1,000 North Carolinians, which the press release is reprinted in this post. In the survey, we asked a number of current issues and news items to garner a sense of North Carolina's public opinions, as have many other survey outlets as well.
In this survey, North Carolinians shared their opinions about:
- The approval/disapproval of President Trump, U.S. Senator Tillis, Governor Stein, and the Political Parties in Congress
- What North Carolinians believe will be the impact of potential tariffs on goods
- How inflation and costs are envisioned going into the future
- The firings of government employees in 14 different departments/agencies
- The suspension of military aid to Ukraine
- What should be the top priorities for North Carolina’s state government
In the poll, 48 percent strongly or somewhat approve of the president’s job, while 47 strongly or somewhat disapprove. When asked about tariffs proposed by Trump on imported products from other nations, 84 percent of North Carolinians said the prices of imported products would increase either drastically or slightly. Only 8 percent said the prices would decrease slightly or drastically.
On Wednesday, March 26th, President Trump announced a new round of tariffs of 25 percent on autos and car parts, with more tariffs potentially announced in the beginning of April.
Approval Ratings for Thom Tillis, Josh Stein, and Congressional Parties
North Carolinians disapprove of both political parties in Congress. When asked about the congressional Republican Party, 46 percent disapproved to 43 percent approving, while 52 percent disapproved of the congressional Democratic Party to only 35 percent approving.
A quarter—26 percent—of self-identified Democrats disapproved of their own party, while 63 percent of Independents disapproved of congressional Democrats. A majority of Independents—53 percent—disapproved of congressional Republicans who control both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Almost nine out of ten Republicans—87 percent—approved of their party in Congress.
The Economy and State of the Nation:
When asked what costs will do over the next four years, two-thirds (66 percent) of North Carolinians said costs would increase drastically or slightly, while 22 percent said they would decrease either slightly or drastically.
When asked if the country was on the right or wrong track, 54 percent said the wrong track, while 46 percent said the right track.
“Despite the claims by President Trump and his administration that other countries will bear the costs of tariffs, North Carolinians see the potential negative impact on the prices of imported goods, while inflation remains an issue moving into the future,” Bitzer said.
Firing of Federal Government Employees
- 71 percent of Democrats opposed firings in the Department of Health and Human Services, while 50 percent of Republicans supported the firings.
- For both the Department of Defense and Education, 72 percent of Democrats opposed the firings, while 49 percent of Republicans supported firings in these departments.
- Majorities of Republicans supported firings in the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), while at least two-thirds of Democrats opposed firings in these agencies.
Military Assistance to Ukraine
North Carolina State Government Priorities
With the North Carolina General Assembly in the early months of its long session, North Carolinians were asked about the priorities for state government from a list of topics. Among all North Carolinians, “reducing the costs of living” was ranked the top priority, with 41 percent of all respondents identifying that issue.
In a distant second was “improving public education,” with 12 percent saying it was their highest priority. Other priorities included “reducing taxes” (11 percent), “improving health care” (10 percent), and “job creation” (10 percent).
Among self-identified Republicans, a plurality (42 percent) agreed with reducing the costs of living, but 17 percent ranked ‘reducing taxes’ as the number two priority, followed by ‘job creation’ (9 percent) and ‘reducing government spending’ and ‘improving health care’ (both at 8 percent).
Among self-identified Democrats, 40 percent agreed with ‘reducing the costs of living’ but differed with Republicans as to other priorities: ‘improving public education’ was at 18 percent, ‘improving health care’ at 14 percent, and ‘job creation’ at 10 percent.
Finally, among self-identified independents, 38 percent agreed with ‘reducing the costs of living’ as the top priority, while 12 percent prioritized ‘improving public education,’ 11 percent identified ‘job creation,’ and 10 percent indicated ‘reducing taxes’ as their top priority.
Two other choices were given: ‘improving infrastructure’ received about five percent from all respondents, and respondents were able to provide free responses if their priority was not listed. See attached documentation of those other choices, which represented about six percent of all respondents.
Note: This question on NC government priorities was posed by students in Catawba College’s Social Science Research course, who will be analyzing the data for a class project.
- party self-identification;
- collapsed party self-identification;
- collapsed ideological self-identification;
- generation cohorts*;
- gender;
- collapsed education;
- race/ethnicity;
- income
