Raleigh, N.C. – North Carolina is renowned for its beaches, and its citizens love its biggest beach town, Wilmington. In its latest statewide poll, PPP asked Tar Heels their opinions of the state’s 12 most prominent cities and towns, and Wilmington came out on top. Two-thirds of North Carolinians see the city favorably and only 4% unfavorably. Next in line is the capital city, Raleigh, which an identical 67% see positively but 11% negatively. The least popular is Fayetteville, though voters are still split on it (29-30).
Between Raleigh and Fayetteville in net favorability is the jewel of the mountains, Asheville (61-12), then Winston-Salem (55-8), then Greensboro (56-11), then the biggest city, Charlotte (59-18), then the home of the flagship university, Chapel Hill (53-18), then Raleigh suburb Cary (41-14), then Greenville (36-11), then Chapel Hill extension Carrboro (21-11), and then home of Duke University, Durham (38-29).
North Carolinians generally like all their major municipalities a lot, but women especially so. There are gender gaps of 20 or more points for the two main college towns, Chapel Hill and Durham. There are 14-point gender gaps in favor of women for Raleigh and Cary as well, plus 10 points for Asheville and eight for Charlotte.
The biggest partisan gap between Democrats and Republicans—39 points—is unsurprisingly for Chapel Hill, which Democrats like by 52 points but Republicans by only 13. That is followed by nearby Durham, which Democrats like 28 points more than Republicans do, then Winston-Salem (D +27), Charlotte (D +21), Raleigh and Asheville (D +17), Greensboro (D +16), and Carrboro (D +12).
Black voters like Fayetteville by 33 points more than whites do, Charlotte by 31 points, and Durham by 21 points, while white voters like Asheville, Wilmington, and Carrboro by 15 to 18 points more than African Americans do.
Voters in each city’s area code generally see the city more favorably than voters statewide do, but Durham, Chapel Hill, and Asheville are actually seen less favorably in their respective regions than by voters who live further away.
PPP surveyed 804 North Carolina voters from March 8th to 11th. The margin of error for the survey is +/-3.5%. PPP 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 city of Asheville?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 61%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 12%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 27%
Q2 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the town of Carrboro?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 21%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 11%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 68%
Q3 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the town of Cary?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 41%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 14%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 45%
Q4 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the town of Chapel Hill?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 53%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 18%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 29%
Q5 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the city of Charlotte?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 59%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 18%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 23%
Q6 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the city of Durham?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 38%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 29%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 33%
Q7 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the city of Fayetteville?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 29%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 30%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 41%
Q8 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the city of Greensboro?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 56%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 11%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 33%
Q9 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the city of Greenville?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 36%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 11%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 53%
Q10 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the city of Raleigh?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 67%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 11%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 22%
Q11 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the city of Wilmington?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 67%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 4%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 29%
Q12 Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion
of the city of Winston-Salem?
Favorable……………………………………………….. 55%
Unfavorable ……………………………………………. 8%
Not sure …………………………………………………. 37%
Q13 Would you describe yourself as very liberal,
somewhat liberal, moderate, somewhat
conservative, or very conservative?
Very liberal ……………………………………………… 12%
Somewhat liberal …………………………………….. 15%
Moderate………………………………………………… 29%
Somewhat conservative……………………………. 25%
Very conservative ……………………………………. 20%
Q14 If you are a woman, press 1. If a man, press 2.
Woman ………………………………………………….. 54%
Man……………………………………………………….. 46%
Q15 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 ……………………………………………….. 45%
Republican……………………………………………… 34%
Independent/Other…………………………………… 21%
Q16 If you are white, press 1. If African-American,
press 2. If other, press 3.
White …………………………………………………….. 75%
African-American …………………………………….. 21%
Other……………………………………………………… 4%
Q17 If you are 18 to 29 years old, press 1. If 30 to
45, press 2. If 46 to 65, press 3. If you are
older than 65, press 4.
18 to 29………………………………………………….. 12%
30 to 45………………………………………………….. 30%
46 to 65………………………………………………….. 38%
Older than 65………………………………………….. 20%
Q18
252………………………………………………………… 9%
336………………………………………………………… 19%
704………………………………………………………… 22%
828………………………………………………………… 14%
910………………………………………………………… 15%
919………………………………………………………… 20%
