Former President Donald Trump is edging out President Joe Biden in the key swing state of North Carolina, the latest Marist survey analyzing the general election found.
The survey showed a tight race for the presidency in North Carolina, but ultimately, Trump is currently carrying the state with 51 percent support from registered voters. Biden falls three points behind, with 48 percent support. However, that three-point gap is within the survey’s ± 3.6 percent margin of error.
That three-point difference remains when independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is added to the mix, as Trump sees 46 percent support, followed by 43 percent for Biden and 11 percent for Kennedy.
Our first NC poll of 2024 gives Trump a slim lead and shows the Governor's race with its controversial GOP candidate very close.
— Marist Poll (@maristpoll) March 20, 2024
Check out all the data plus our brand new GA poll: https://t.co/FFBaEOOk16 pic.twitter.com/yn0Xlv35Wo
Unlike the recent Marist survey that showed Biden with a one-point edge over Trump with independents in Georgia, this survey found Trump as the leader among this group, leading Biden by six points — 52 percent to 46 percent.
While Biden continues to hold a lead with black voters, the survey showed a drastic decrease in support, moving from 92 percent to 79 percent. Trump is also making strides among young voters, moving from 40 percent support to 49 percent support among voters 18 to 29 and from 43 percent to 51 percent among voters 30 to 44.
Additionally, 53 percent of North Carolina residents disapprove of Biden’s job performance, and 54 percent have an unfavorable view of him. Further, most, 59 percent, believe Biden’s mental fitness is a “real concern,” and more than a quarter of Democrats, 26 percent, share the concern.
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As is consistent in other surveys, most voters believe Trump is better suited to handle the issues of immigration and the economy than Biden, and those remain major issues for voters in the state.
The survey was taken March 11-14, 2024, among 1,197 registered North Carolina voters. It comes as Trump emerges as the presumptive Republican nominee, meaning the general election season is already largely underway.
“This country is in deep trouble,” Trump told Breitbart News in a recent interview. “We’ve never been in trouble like this. We’re in more trouble because [Vladimir] Putin doesn’t respect us. Ukraine never would have happened with Russia. Israel never would have been invaded.”
“We wouldn’t have inflation because it was all caused by energy. Day one it was caused by energy. I think we’re in massive trouble as a country,” he continued, warning that Biden could do more damage in the next seven months.
“We have a little more than seven months until the election, and that sounds like a short time, but that’s an eternity for this lunatic to be running this country. If we don’t win…I think that November 5 is the most important day in the history of our country,” Trump added.
