A recent pollout of East Carolina University finds half of GOP primary voters are undecided in the 2024 North Carolina governor’s race.
The poll shows Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson leads the GOP field with roughly a third of registered Republican voters, while former prosecutor Bill Graham and State Treasurer Dale Folwell are in the single digits.
"While Mark Robinson is certainly the favorite to be the Republican candidate, the fact that so many Republican primary voters are still undecided suggests that the nomination battle is not yet over. And, no matter who the Republican nominee is, the general election for governor should be an extremely competitive election," Peter Francia, Director of ECU's Center for Survey Research, said.
Notably, the poll looked at voters' presidential preferences, too, and compared that to which gubernatorial candidate they support. Roughly two-thirds of Republican primary voters said they'll vote for President Donald Trump in March. Of those supporters, 41% said they back Robinson, who has a similar fiery and combative campaign style.
Just 13% of North Carolina GOP primary voters expressed support for UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, and 10% for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — basically a tie, given the poll's 5.4% confidence interval among that group. DeSantis supporters are also more likely to favor Robinson, while Folwell leads among Haley supporters.
Lastly, the poll finds a close contest between the presumed Democratic nominee Attorney General Josh Stein and all the Republican candidates. All match-ups were within the margin of error, meaning there is not a discernible lead for any GOP candidate against Stein when it comes to the November election.
The poll was conducted Nov. 29-Dec. Roughly three months before North Carolina's primary elections on March 5.
