Trump modestly leads North Carolina’s first post-debate poll

Former President Donald Trump had the modest edge, though not clear of the margin of error, in the first poll of North Carolinians released following his Tuesday night debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump led 50%-48.3% with a +/-3.4% margin of error among the 815 likely voters, Quantus Polls and News said Friday. The poll’s demographics included 37% Republicans, 33% Democrats and 29% independent.

The sampling was done Wednesday and Thursday.

In further breakdowns, males favored Trump (56%) and females Harris (54%); white voters favored Trump (61%) and Black voters Harris (85%); and voters without college education favored Trump (54%) and educated favored Harris (56%).

Earlier in the week, two polls of North Carolinians sampling 900 or more likely voters conducted prior to Tuesday’s debate and released this week were percentage points away from escaping a statistical dead heat and going the way of Harris.

The 59-year-old Democrat led the 78-year-old Republican by 3 percentage points in each, just shy of the +/- 3.2% margin of error in the Quinnipiac poll and a little more on the wobbly +/- 4.9% margin of error for the SurveyUSA poll sponsored by WRAL-TV. Overall with no margin of error factored, and Friday marking 53 days away from Election Day, the race is led by one-tenth of a percentage point by Trump, according to RealClear Polling.

North Carolina is among the seven battleground states representing 93 electoral college votes. Pennsylvania has 19, North Carolina and Georgia 16 each, Michigan 15, Arizona 11, Wisconsin 10 and Nevada six.

Since the Democratic National Convention Aug. 19-22, polls conducted among North Carolinians were close but all showing Trump with a 1-point lead in a statistical tie with exception of a Bloomberg poll Aug. 23-26. Those 700 registered voters were measured at +/- 4% margin of error and scored Harris a 49%-47% win.