Raleigh, N.C. – North Carolina voters’ opinion of President Barack Obama turned unfavorable for the first time this month according to a poll released today by the Civitas Institute.
According to the live caller poll of 600 likely 2010 voters, Obama was seen unfavorably by 45 percent of North Carolina voters, a six point increase from March. Meanwhile, his favorable numbers declined by four points from 48 to 44 percent. Twelve percent of voters had no opinion. Obama’s net favorability rating fell from plus nine last month to minus one in April.
“Voter opposition to Obama’s unpopular proposals like health care has finally caught up with his personal favorability rating. Before, voters were able to separate their personally liking President Obama with his stance on issues, but this has now changed,” said Civitas Institute Senior Legislative Analyst Chris Hayes. “The final push over the edge was the health care reform bill.”
Democrats still remain overall favorable to the President, although their support is beginning to wane. Sixty-five percent of Democratic voters have a favorable opinion of Obama, but that is down four percentage points since the passage of the health care reform bill. Twenty-four percent have an unfavorable opinion, up five points from March.
Unaffiliated voters now have an unfavorable opinion of Obama, going from a plus three favorability rating (42-39 percent) last month to a minus five rating (41-46 percent) this month. Republicans are by and large unfavorable to Obama holding a negative 59 favorability rating (14-73 percent).
“Disapproval from unaffiliated voters is sending Obama’s numbers down and the increasingly unpopular health care reform bill is the single biggest reason,” added Hayes. “The big question for Obama is can he get them back or has he lost them for good.”
The Civitas Poll is the only monthly live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina. The Institute will host its 5th anniversary poll luncheon on Wednesday, April 28 at 11:30 a.m. at the North Raleigh Hilton. Event information can be found at http://www.nccivitas.org/events/. For more information on Civitas polling see www.nccivitas.org/media/poll-results/.
Full text of questions:
I am going to read you a list of names, please tell me if have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of each. If you have not heard of the person, just say so:
“Barack Obama”
Favorable – 44% (-4 from March)
Unfavorable – 45% (+6)
No Opinion – 12% (-1)
Click here for full results and crosstabs.
This poll of 600 likely general election voters in North Carolina was conducted April 13-15, 2010 by Tel Opinion Research of Alexandria, Virginia. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters we interviewed had to have voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.
The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.
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