1.  In general, do you approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president?  And would you say you strongly or somewhat approve/disapprove?  24%     STRONGLY APPROVE 19%      SOMEWHAT APPROVE 6%        UNDECIDED 11%      SOMEWHAT DISAPPROVE 38%     STRONGLY DISAPPROVE 1%       DON’T KNOW/REFUSED 43%   TOTAL APPROVE 49%   TOTAL DISAPPROVE 2.  If the election for United States Congress were held today, would you vote for the Republican candidate or Democratic candidate?  And would you sayRead More

  American Insights’ recent statewide poll of 611 North Carolina registered voters finds that N.C. Senator Kay Hagan slightly leads all potential match-ups with leading Republican challengers.  Hagan holds a 3 point lead on Thom Tillis, 38% to 35%.  She also holds a 4 point lead on Mark Harris, 39% to 35%, and a 2 point advantage over Greg Brannon, 38% to 36%.  Each of these leads is within the poll’s 4 point margin of error. In analyzing the relative performance of the three GOP challengers against the Senator, weRead More

American Insights’ recent statewide poll of 611 North Carolina registered voters finds that in considering candidates for U.S. Senate, voters prefer one with a professional background in Business.  23% of voters opted for Business with a Faith-Based professional background being the second most popular in a candidate at 14%.  A Finance background polled very closely behind Faith-Based, also at 14%.  13% of voters prefer a background in Health Care while 9% are partial to Law and only 7% most prefer a professional background in Government. Business was the most preferredRead More

American Insights’ recent statewide poll of 611 North Carolina registered voters finds that the GOP Senate Primary field still lacks a strong frontrunner, just over two months from the May 6 election.  Thom Tillis leads the pack with 11% of the Republican vote, followed by Mark Harris (7%), Greg Brannon (4%) and Heather Grant (4%).  More than half of Republicans (55%) remain undecided. Among self-identified Strong Republicans, Tillis leads Harris 12% to 10%, with Brannon and Grant trailing at 4%.  Among voters who consider themselves Conservative Republicans, Tillis and HarrisRead More

American Insights’ recent statewide poll of 611 North Carolina registered voters finds that Senator Kay Hagan’s approval is currently negative, but within the poll’s margin of error.  37% of voters approve of the job Kay Hagan is doing as US Senator, while 39% disapprove.  Behind those topline numbers, the strength of sentiment regarding the Senator paints a more troubling picture for her.  27% strongly disapprove of the job she is doing, while only 15% strongly approve, a negative 12 point margin on intensity.  20% of voters are undecided on theRead More

Researchers at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington published a study in December of 2013 that gauged the opinions of North Carolina teachers on the broad education reforms passed in state government in the past year.  The researchers believe that teacher are the best barometer of the current state of public education in North Carolina and recognized a void of data regarding the opinions of educators on the education reforms. The researchers assert that the findings, supported by anecdotal evidence, point to a climate of dissatisfaction and resentment amongRead More

A poll of business leaders conducted in November of 2013 details the potential negative effects of the Affordable Care Act on American businesses and employees.  The survey, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of the IFA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, interviewed 414 owners and C-level executives in businesses employing between 40 and 500 people from late September to mid-October. Business decision makers have already cut full-time positions and raised prices to cover the growing expense of health care expected as a result of changes brought on byRead More

An article by the Pew Research Center provides a detailed look at the recent report from the Congressional Budget Office outlining the tradeoffs involved with raising the minimum wage.  Those in favor of raising the minimum wage say that it would raise the standard of living for low-wage workers and ease poverty.  Those against say that it would eliminate jobs while raising costs for services across the board. It turns out that both sides are correct to some degree.  The CBO report projects that incomes for 16.5 million low-wage workersRead More

A poll conducted by the High Point University Survey Research Center this month took a detailed look at how North Carolina voters feel regarding some of the education related reforms passed by the N.C. General Assembly during the 2013 legislative session.  The statewide poll of 421 adults, which was fielded from January 26-30, asked a variety of questions related to subjects such as teacher pay and tenure, the Read to Achieve Program and school choice. Regarding Common Core, 50 percent of adults favored having a mandatory national curriculum for schools,Read More

A recent Gallup poll has found that Americans have a new top problem, jobs and unemployment.  In January, only 16% of the country mentioned jobs and unemployment as the top problem.  But the February poll found that the number increased to 25%, replacing the previous top problem—the government and politicians. While Washington may be glad to longer be seen as the top problem, it comes at the expense of the US workforce.  From 2008 to fall of 2013—nearly a five year stretch– jobs and the economy had been the topRead More