Democrats are winning Senate, gubernatorial and presidential races in the battleground state of North Carolina, a new poll shows.
In the Senate race which could determine who controls the chamber in the next Congress, Democratic challenger Deborah Ross leads incumbent Republican Richard Burr by 2 points, 46 percent to 44 percent, in a new Bloomberg poll of likely voters in the state.
Ross, a former state legislator, does better with voters under age 35, with a 27-point advantage, and non-whites, with a 44-point advantage. Burr has a 15-point lead with voters over age 65, a 15-point lead with whites, and a 23-point lead among evangelicals.
The race is rated Tilts Republican by The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report/Roll Call.
In the gubernatorial race, Democratic challenger Roy Cooper leads incumbent Republican Pat McCrory by 6 points, 50 percent to 44 percent.
The poll found Cooper, the state's attorney general, has an advantage among women, young voters, and nonwhite voterss. He is seen favorably by 45 percent and unfavorably by 35 percent. McCrory is seen favorably by 49 percent and unfavorably by 44 percent.
The presidential race is the closest of the three elections, with only one point separating Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. The poll, taken Sept. 29 through Oct. 2, found voters lean in favor of Clinton, 46 percent to 45 percent.
"It's hard to imagine a battleground state where things could be much closer, both in the overall horse-race number and in the underlying party ideology of the voters," said pollster J. Ann Selzer, who oversaw the survey. "This is the kind of situation where third-party candidates could tip the balance."
The poll found Clinton receives 88 percent of the black vote, but that's lower than the 96 percent that President Barack Obama received in 2012. Obama won North Carolina in 2008 but lost it in 2012 to challenger Mitt Romney.
Trump has a 51-point advantage with white men without a college degree, a 28-point edge with rural dwellers and a 24-point lead among evangelical Christians.
The poll found Clinton has a 67-point advantage over Trump with non-whites, a 39-point lead among city dwellers, a 37-point lead among those under 35, a 17-point lead with women, and a 13-point lead among those with a college degree.
The survey was conducted by Iowa-based Selzer & Co., and interviewed 805 likely voters. The poll had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
