North Carolinians are evenly divided on whether they approve or disapprove of President Donald Trump, but are very clear on what they think the impact of Trump’s use of tariffs will be, according to a new Catawba College-YouGov poll released today.
In the poll, 48 percent strongly or somewhat approve of the president’s job, while 47 strongly or somewhat disapprove. When asked about tariffs proposed by Trump on imported products from other nations, 84 percent of North Carolinians said the prices of imported products would increase either drastically or slightly. Only 8 percent said the prices would decrease slightly or drastically.
On Wednesday, March 26th, President Trump announced a new round of tariffs of 25 percent on autos and car parts, with more tariffs potentially announced in the beginning of April.
“In a state that is as evenly divided as North Carolina is, its residents continue that tradition with an even division on President Trump’s approval and disapproval,” said Dr. Michael Bitzer, professor of politics and history and director of the Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service, which paid for the poll. “But overwhelming numbers of North Carolinians expect any tariffs imposed by the president to increase prices on those goods.”
The poll, conducted by YouGov from March 10th to 20th, 2025, has a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percent for the 1,000 weighted respondents, with larger margins of error among sub-groups. All results should be interpreted as informative and not determinative.
Approval Ratings for Thom Tillis, Josh Stein, and Congressional Parties
U.S. Senator Thom Tillis, North Carolina’s senior Republican senator who is up for re-election in 2026, has an approval of 41 percent in the state, with 37 percent disapproval and 22 percent saying they don’t know. However, both Trump’s and Tillis’ numbers were within the margin of error of the poll.
“With North Carolina being one of the most watched U.S. Senate elections in 2026, Tillis has a 65 percent approval among his party, while 56 percent of Democrats disapprove,” Bitzer noted. “An interesting dynamic at this early stage is that 27 percent of Democrats approve of Tillis, compared to 16 percent of Republicans who disapprove. Independents are slightly less favorable to Tillis, but only at 41 percent disapprove to 36 percent approving of the senator, again within the poll’s margin of error.”
North Carolina’s Democratic Governor Josh Stein has the highest approval of the three elected officials: 56 percent approval to 21 percent disapproval, with 23 percent responded that they didn’t know. Self-identified Democrats gave Stein a 71 percent approval, while a plurality (46 percent) of Republicans gave their approval. Independents were at 58 percent approval for Stein to just 19 percent disapproval.
North Carolinians disapprove of both political parties in Congress. When asked about the congressional Republican Party, 46 percent disapproved to 43 percent approving, while 52 percent disapproved of the congressional Democratic Party to only 35 percent approving.
A quarter—26 percent—of self-identified Democrats disapproved of their own party, while 63 percent of Independents disapproved of congressional Democrats. A majority of Independents—53 percent—disapproved of congressional Republicans who control both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Almost nine out of ten Republicans—87 percent—approved of their party in Congress.
North Carolinians were also asked about their views on a number of other topics:
The Economy and State of the Nation:
- North Carolinians’ views on the economy were decidedly negative: 64 percent believed that inflation would drastically or slightly increase over the next six months, while only 22 percent believed inflation would slightly or drastically decrease.
- When asked what costs will do over the next four years, two-thirds (66 percent) of North Carolinians said costs would increase drastically or slightly, while 22 percent said they would decrease either slightly or drastically.
- When asked if the country was on the right or wrong track, 54 percent said the wrong track, while 46 percent said the right track.
“Despite the claims by President Trump and his administration that other countries will bear the costs of tariffs, North Carolinians see the potential negative impact on the prices of imported goods, while inflation remains an issue moving into the future,” Bitzer said.
Firing of Federal Government Employees
- When asked about the Trump administration’s firings of probationary federal employees (those usually in their first year of working), firings in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Social Security Administration garnered the most opposition by North Carolinians, 47 percent and 45 percent respectively, while 26 and 27 percent supported firings in these government agencies respectively.
- Only the Internal Revenue Service received a split between those who supported the firings (36 percent) and those opposed (36 percent).
- Partisan trends are evident on firings in the fourteen different federal government departments and offices (see attached list for full party breakdowns).
- 71 percent of Democrats opposed firings in the Department of Health and Human Services, while 50 percent of Republicans supported the firings.
- For both the Department of Defense and Education, 72 percent of Democrats opposed the firings, while 49 percent of Republicans supported firings in these departments.
- Majorities of Republicans supported firings in the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), while at least two-thirds of Democrats opposed firings in these agencies.
“Only two agencies appear to garner at most one-third of North Carolinians’ support for the firing of probationary government employees: the IRS and USAID,” said Bitzer. “With the exception of the IRS, pluralities of North Carolinians indicated opposition to the firing of government employees in these departments and agencies, but the striking differences rest on partisanship.”
For all fourteen departments/agencies, see attached “March 2025 Catawba YouGov Federal Agencies & Firings” document.
Military Assistance to Ukraine
When asked whether they approve or disapprove of the United States suspending military assistance to Ukraine, North Carolinians were equally divided: 44 percent strongly or somewhat approved, while 43 strongly or somewhat disapproved. Among self-identified partisans, 62 percent of Democrats disapproved of the suspension, while 63 percent of Republicans approved. Independents reflected the state-wide split in public opinion.
North Carolina State Government Priorities
With the North Carolina General Assembly in the early months of its long session, North Carolinians were asked about the priorities for state government from a list of topics. Among all North Carolinians, “reducing the costs of living” was ranked the top priority, with 41 percent of all respondents identifying that issue.
In a distant second was “improving public education,” with 12 percent saying it was their highest priority. Other priorities included “reducing taxes” (11 percent), “improving health care” (10 percent), and “job creation” (10 percent).
Among self-identified Republicans, a plurality (42 percent) agreed with reducing the costs of living, but 17 percent ranked ‘reducing taxes’ as the number two priority, followed by ‘job creation’ (9 percent) and ‘reducing government spending’ and ‘improving health care’ (both at 8 percent).
Among self-identified Democrats, 40 percent agreed with ‘reducing the costs of living’ but differed with Republicans as to other priorities: ‘improving public education’ was at 18 percent, ‘improving health care’ at 14 percent, and ‘job creation’ at 10 percent.
Finally, among self-identified independents, 38 percent agreed with ‘reducing the costs of living’ as the top priority, while 12 percent prioritized ‘improving public education,’ 11 percent identified ‘job creation,’ and 10 percent indicated ‘reducing taxes’ as their top priority.
Two other choices were given: ‘improving infrastructure’ received about five percent from all respondents, and respondents were able to provide free responses if their priority was not listed. See attached documentation of those other choices, which represented about six percent of all respondents.
Note: This question on NC government priorities was posed by students in Catawba College’s Social Science Research course, who will be analyzing the data for a class project.
Generation Cohorts: Silent & Boomer generations = ages 61 and older; Generation X = 45-60 years old; Millennial & Generation Z = 44 years old and younger.
