Raleigh, N.C. – Two years ago PPP
did national polls assessing the favorability of every state in the country.
While southern states generally found themselves toward the bottom of the list,
North Carolina was an exception. It polled among the ten most popular states in
the country, with 40% of voters rating it favorably to only 11% who had an
unfavorable opinion.

North Carolina’s national image has seen a strong shift in a negative
direction since that time. Its favorability has dropped from 40% to 30%, while
the share of voters with an unfavorable opinion of it has more than doubled
from 11% to 23%. Its +7 favorability rating would have ranked it 40th in our
national study of state popularity in 2011, rather than its top 10 popularity
at that time.

The state’s national image has seen particularly large declines with racial
minorities and women. In 2011 North Carolina stood out in the south as a state
African Americans had a positive opinion of, at a 42/8 favorability rating. Now
blacks see it negatively by a 19/30 spread. It’s a similar story with
Hispanics- they gave the state a positive 50/9 favorability in 2011, now it’s a
negative one at 20/39. There’s also been a steep decline with women. They gave
the state a net +32 favorability in 2011 at 40/8, but that’s dropped all the
way down to +3 at just 25/22.

Predictably the biggest hit in North Carolina’s national image following
this legislative session has been with Democrats. Their view of North Carolina
has dropped a net 38 points from +18 (35/17) a couple years to -20 at 18/38
now. What’s interesting though is the state has gotten less popular with
Republicans too- it had a +42 favorability at 48/6 in 2011 and that’s declined
now to +28 at 41/13.

“We’ve found month after month in our polling that North Carolinians are
unhappy with what’s happened to their state this year,” said Dean Debnam,
President of Public Policy Polling. “What we’re seeing now is that the rest of
the country is pretty unhappy with it too.”

PPP surveyed 803
registered voters between August 26-28, 2013. The margin of error was +/- 3.5%.
This poll was not authorized or paid for by any campaign or political
organization. PPP’s surveys are conducted through automated telephone
interviews.

Topline results are below.  Full results, including crosstabs, can be found here.

Q1 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the state of North Carolina?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 30%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 23%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 47%

Q2 Would you describe yourself as very liberal,
somewhat liberal, moderate, somewhat
conservative, or very conservative?
Very liberal ……………………………………………… 9%
Somewhat liberal …………………………………….. 17%
Moderate………………………………………………… 31%
Somewhat conservative……………………………. 24%
Very conservative ……………………………………. 19%

Q3 If you are a woman, press 1. If a man, press 2.
Woman ………………………………………………….. 52%
Man……………………………………………………….. 48%

Q4 If you are a Democrat, press 1. If a Republican,
press 2. If you are an independent or identify
with another party, press 3.
Democrat ……………………………………………….. 39%
Republican……………………………………………… 34%
Independent/Other…………………………………… 27%

Q5 If you are Hispanic, press 1. If white, press 2.
If African-American, press 3. If other, press 4.
Hispanic…………………………………………………. 9%
White …………………………………………………….. 71%
African-American …………………………………….. 11%
Other……………………………………………………… 9%

Q6 If you are 18 to 45 years old, press 1. If 46 to
65, press 2. If you are older than 65, press 3.
18 to 45………………………………………………….. 40%
46 to 65………………………………………………….. 40%
Older than 65………………………………………….. 20%