Trump-endorsed Budd leads McCrory by double digits in NC GOP Senate race, poll says

U.S. Rep. Ted Budd has a double-digit lead in the Republican primary to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a poll released Tuesday shows.

Budd, a three-term congressman representing North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, leads former Gov. Pat McCrory by 16 percentage points among likely voters, according to the poll, which was conducted by Emerson College and the news outlet The Hill.

A total of 36% of Republicans who were surveyed said they would vote for Budd in the May 17 primary election, while 22% said they would vote for McCrory, who served as governor from 2013 to 2017. Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker received 9% in the poll, while military veteran Marjorie Eastman received 1%. Twenty-three percent of Republicans said they were still undecided, roughly five weeks before the primary.

Among suburban voters, the poll shows that Budd and McCrory are tied with 31% each. Rural voters, however, sided with Budd by a higher margin; 42% of them said they would vote for Budd and just 11% said they’d vote for McCrory.

In a statement posted on his campaign’s website, Budd said about the poll, “We’ve gone from 40 points down at the start of this campaign to having a commanding lead today and our campaign momentum is only going to increase with President Donald Trump’s rally this weekend.”

Budd was endorsed by Trump last year, at the NCGOP convention in Greenville, and the conservative Club for Growth PAC has spent millions of dollars in TV ads informing Republicans of the endorsement. Trump will hold a rally Saturday in Johnston County.

The poll was conducted between April 2 and 4, and surveyed a total of 508 likely voters for questions about the upcoming GOP primary. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

In addition to their preference in the primary, Republican voters were also asked if an endorsement by Trump would make them more or less likely to vote for a candidate.

Fifty-nine percent of voters said Trump’s endorsement of a candidate would make them more likely to vote for the candidate, while 13% of voters said the endorsement would make them less likely to vote for the candidate, and 27% of voters said the endorsement wouldn’t make a difference.

Polled against Cheri Beasley

Voters were also asked how they would vote in hypothetical matchups between the leading GOP candidates and leading Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley. These questions were asked of the full sample of 1,047 registered voters (as compared to questions about the GOP primary, which were only posed to the smaller sample of 508 likely voters.) Some of the totals add up to more than 100% because of rounding.

Among the Republican candidates, Budd was the best-performing candidate when going up against Beasley. According to the poll, 50% of voters said they would vote for Budd while 43% said they would vote for Beasley, and 8% said they were undecided.

The poll also showed Walker and Eastman receiving more support than Beasley, although by smaller 5- and 1-point margins, respectively, and a larger share of voters saying they were undecided.

In the matchup between McCrory and Beasley, however, Beasley received more support, with 43% of voters choosing her and 41% of voters picking McCrory. In that hypothetical contest, nearly 17% of voters said they were undecided.

For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.

This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 6:55 PM with the headline "Trump-endorsed Budd leads McCrory by double digits in NC GOP Senate race, poll says."

Avi Bajpai

The News & Observer

919-346-4817

Avi Bajpai is a state politics reporter for The News & Observer. He previously covered breaking news and public safety. Contact him at abajpai@newsobserver.com or (919) 346-4817.