HIGH POINT – A High Point University and YouGov poll released Oct. 28 found Democrat Roy Cooper leading Republican Michael Whatley 54% to 40% among likely voters in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race.
Libertarian Shannon Bray received 2%, Green Party candidate Michael Dublin received 1%, and 4% were unsure or would not vote. Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding.
The online survey was conducted Oct. 1-20. YouGov interviewed 1,046 registered voters, then matched respondents to produce an 800-person registered-voter sample. The likely-voter results use a subset of 620 respondents.
HPU identified likely voters using six questions about past voting, election interest, polling-place knowledge, voting frequency and plans to participate. Registered voters scoring five or six were included in that group.
Because respondents came from an online panel rather than random selection, HPU said a classic sampling margin of error was inappropriate. It reported a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points for likely voters.
CallTheMap’s independently maintained North Carolina Senate archive lists the HPU release, its 620 likely voters and the 54%-40% result. The directory supports the public release record, not independent validation of the survey’s accuracy. A listing should not be treated as another poll or as replication.
The State Board of Elections says the general election is Nov. 3 and in-person early voting ends at 3 p.m. Oct. 31 statewide. Eligible voters may use any early voting site in their own county. Voters can check locations and hours through the board’s site rather than assuming every location follows identical hours.
The poll describes preferences during its field period, which ended eight days before release. It is not an election result or a forecast, and its statewide findings do not establish how any individual county or district will vote.
Sources
- HPU/YouGov: Oct. 28 release and methodology
- CallTheMap: North Carolina Senate poll archive
- NCSBE: early-voting dates and guidance
Photo Credit: Roy Cooper photograph by Staff Sgt. Mary Junell, U.S. Army/North Carolina National Guard, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Michael Whatley photograph by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). File photographs cropped and resized; photographic composite licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Editor’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.