North Carolina Poll: Trump up 50 Points in Republican Primary; DeSantis Falls to Third

Former President Donald Trump is up 50 points in North Carolina’s Republican primary race, an ECU survey reveals.

The survey showed Trump leading the GOP primary race by 50 percentage points, garnering 63 percent support. No other presidential hopeful came remotely close, as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley came in second place with 13 percent support.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in third place with just ten percent support, followed by Vivek Ramaswamy with three percent, former Gov. Chris Christie with two percent, and former Gov. Asa Hutchinson with one percent support. Eight percent remain undecided, which is not enough to help any of them in overtaking Trump.

That survey also examined the governor’s race in state and found Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson leading the gubernatorial primary with a 26-point lead — 34 percent support.

Former prosecutor Bill Graham comes in second with eight percent support, followed closely by State Treasurer Dale Folwell with seven percent support, and former state legislator Andy Wells with three percent support. However, a significant percentage of Republican primary voters, 49 percent, remain undecided in that race.

Further, the poll found Robinson leading likely Democrat challenger North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, by four points in a head-to-head matchup. However, 16 percent remain undecided.

The full survey was taken November 29 to December 1, 2023, among 915 registered voters in North Carolina. It has a +/- 3.8 percentage margin of error.

The survey was released ahead of the fourth Republican primary debate, which featured four of Trump’s challengers taking center stage, hoping to make a dent in Trump’s dominant lead, as he leads them nationally — and in individual states — by double digits.

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