Let’s get the actually important stuff out of the way first.
A new Public Policy Polling survey of North Carolina finds Democrats leading Republicans on a generic congressional ballot (46–41), Democrats are more likely to be “very excited” about voting than Republicans (51–40), Donald Trump is underwater (42 percent approval), so are Richard Burr (31 percent) and Thom Tillis (28 percent), nobody likes the General Assembly (19 percent approval), Governor Cooper is more popular now than he was a year ago (49 percent compared to 45 percent), and big majorities are in favor of an independent redistricting commission (59 percent) and a congressional fix for DACA (64 percent).
“Donald Trump and most of what he tried to do in his first year in office are unpopular in North Carolina,” PPP president Dean Debnam said in a release. “That’s why Democrats are positioned to have their best election in the state since President Obama’s election in 2008.”
In other words, we’re headed for a Democratic wave, which we more or less knew already.
But then this nugget caught our eye:
A lot has changed in North Carolina over the last decade that we’ve been regularly polling the state but there’s one constant: when UNC and Duke play each other in basketball in a couple weeks, 41% of voters will be pulling for the Tar Heels to 31% for the Blue Devils. We’ve never found anything else. There is an interesting political divide with Clinton voters preferring UNC 47/25, while Trump voters prefer Duke 38/35.
We are officially agnostic in the great Duke/UNC divide, and we believe both schools to be fine institutions (even if one of them produced the xenophobic Trump adviser who derailed immigration talks) with excellent basketball programs. And, to be fair, it’s not like Trump voters overwhelmingly back the Blue Devils, or even that most Duke backers are Trump fans (they’re not). But, if you voted for Trump and live in North Carolina, you are slightly more likely than not to want the Blue Devils to defeat the Tar Heels, according to this poll (and ignoring the margin of error).
Take it for what it’s worth.
[pdf-1]
