Nikki Haley voters in North Carolina could hand President Biden victory in the state in November's presidential election, a new poll indicates.
More than half of people in the Tar Heel state who voted for the former U.N. ambassador in the Republican presidential primary told pollsters that they would vote for Biden over former President Donald Trump in a matchup. The share of Biden's vote dropped to 47 per cent among that same group if third-party candidates were considered.
Trump won the North Carolina Republican primary handily, but Haley received nearly 260,000 votes, or roughly 23 percent. Trump won the state in 2020 by fewer than 75,000 votes—his narrowest victory that year—so it would only take a fraction of Haley supporters to flip the state blue.
North Carolina has not voted for a Democratic president since 2008, when Barack Obama was the nominee.
The good news for Trump, who is seeking to take back the White House after losing reelection to Biden four years ago, is that more than half of those surveyed said he would do a better job on key issues such as immigration, international conflicts, and the economy. Biden led only on preserving democracy.
The Quinnipiac University poll also found that the state was effectively too close to call, with 48 per cent of respondents saying they would vote for Trump versus 46 per cent for Biden, and a third-party candidate could play kingmaker.
"With overall voter enthusiasm for Biden and Trump lukewarm at best, close to one in five North Carolina voters look at third-party candidates with open minds and the potential to throw a wrench into the works in a close race," said Tim Malloy, a polling analyst at Quinnipiac.
The poll surveyed 1,401 self-identified registered voters in North Carolina between April 4-8.
Trump is ahead in North Carolina by 4.9 percentage points seven months before the election, according to the RacetotheWH website, which tracks average polling.
Biden might not need to worry about winning the state though, as the majority of polls since the end of March have shown him with a narrow but persistent lead over his Republican challenger in the general election.
But the president still faces a battle to win reelection in race that remains closely contested.
North Carolina is one of seven crucial swing states that could decide who sits in the Oval Office come January 2025. The others are Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Biden won those six states four years ago but is only ahead in Pennsylvania now, according to a RacetotheWH average. And his lead is a razor-thin 0.2 percent.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Daniel Orton is an editor on the live news team at Newsweek, based in London, UK. He was previously Video ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
