Poll: Trump, Clinton early leaders in NC

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton are the early leaders in their respective party’s races for president among North Carolina voters, according to a new poll.

Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling (PPP) finds in its newest poll that Trump is the top choice of North Carolina Republican primary voters. Trump got 16 percent in the poll. He is followed by Jeb Bush and Scott Walker at 12 percent each, Mike Huckabee (11 percent), Ben Carson and Marco Rubio (9), Rand Paul (7), Ted Cruz (6), Chris Christie (5), Carly Fiorina (4), Rick Perry (2) and  Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum at 1 percent each. John Kasich and George Pataki are polling at less than 1 percent in the Tar Heel State.

Trump’s favorability rating in North Carolina is 55/32. PPP says that much higher than it has seen in national polls prior to his entry into the race. According to PPP Trump is especially strong with voters on the far right, where “very conservative” voters have a 66/24 favorable view of him, and among younger voters (29 percent) and men (20 percent).

Bush had been leading previous polls in North Carolina, but PPP says he continues to struggle with conservatives.

On the Democratic side Hillary Clinton still has a dominant lead, but PPP says things are tightening up some in the way that they are in other places across the country. Clinton polled at 55 percent, which is far ahead of Bernie Sanders (20), Jim Webb (7), and 4 percent each for Lincoln Chafee and Martin O’Malley. Clinton has dropped from 62 percent over the last month, while Sanders has made an almost corresponding increase from 14 percent.

PPP says all of the general election match-ups in North Carolina are close with Clinton trailing five of the Republican hopefuls (Huckabee 49/45, Walker 47/43, Carson 47/44, Rubio 47/46 and Paul 46/45) and leading four of them (Trump 47/44, Christie 46/43, Bush 45/43 and Cruz 47/46). She is tied with Fiorina, the only woman on the Republican side, at 45 percent each.