How perfect is this? On the same day that Donald Trump goes on television to explain
how amazing he is despite all those negative headlines and lost business deals over his anti-immigrant hatefulness, Public Policy Polling released
a poll of the presidential primary in North Carolina ... and Trump is leading.
He's the top choice of Republican primary voters in the state, getting 16% to 12% for Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, 11% for Mike Huckabee, 9% for Ben Carson and Marco Rubio, 7% for Rand Paul, 6% for Ted Cruz, 5% for Chris Christie, 4% for Carly Fiorina, 2% for Rick Perry, 1% each for Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, and Rick Santorum, and less than 1% each for John Kasich and George Pataki.
Trump's favorability rating in North Carolina is 55/32, much higher than we were finding in national polls prior to his entry into the race. Trump's really caught fire with voters on the far right- 66% of 'very conservative' voters see him favorably to only 24% with a negative view of him. Trump is polling particularly well with younger voters (29%) and men (20%).
Trump's big sell so far in his campaign has been essentially "I hate immigrants more than the next guy"—and apparently these voters have liked what they're seeing. So however much national Republicans try to separate themselves from his anti-immigrant positions, a solid chunk of the party's voters are making it clear that they're with Trump (and Steve King, and any number of lesser-known Republican lawmakers) on this one.
On the Democratic side, PPP found Hillary Clinton continuing to lead Bernie Sanders, albeit by a smaller margin of 55 percent to 20 percent, where last month it was 62 percent to 14 percent.