HIGH POINT, N.C. (WNCN) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper should not only be merry about Christmas, but merry about how voters continue to perceive him.
High Point University polling, taken after the fall election, gives Cooper a 48 percent approval rating compared to 28 percent who disapprove of him.
It’s almost flipped when it comes to President Biden with a 51 percent disapproval and 32 percent approval.
Governor Cooper, a Democrat, owes his higher numbers partly to Republicans.
“There are a higher proportion of Republicans who approve of the governor but disapprove of the president than in the overall adult population or registered voter population here in North Carolina,” said Martin Kifer, director of HPU Survey Research Center and Chair & Associate Professor of Political Science.
“So that’s a political science way of saying of saying yeah there is apparently more crossover appeal at least when we look at approval,” added Kifer.
Biden’s approval rating is largely linked to how voters believe he is handling the issues and which issues are currently of most concern to North Carolinians. He doesn’t do well with taxes, border security, gas prices or inflation. But Biden gets high points for his COVID-19 response, education, protecting democracy and climate change.
Polling like this not only tells us what North Carolina voters are thinking. It also gives us a window into what political groups and politicians are also learning from their own non-public polling.
“It’s a reflection of what those folks may be seeing when they poll privately, the kinds of things that you are telling us are important and hopefully they are hearing from their constituents,” said Kifer.
Our state has 14 members of the house who will be sworn-in again or sworn-in for the first time. What will they do about the issues that concern voters?
We’ll have to see.
“But that’s another part of representation too, is that you know we voted for you to rely to some extent on your own judgment about what’s most important, what’s the right way to go and then in the case of the house of representatives in two years we can decide whether you made the right decisions or not,” said Kifer.