A new poll released today has some devastating numbers for North Carolina’s entire Senate delegation:

• Senator Tillis’ job approval rating is 21 points underwater (26% approve vs. 47% disapprove).

• Voters overwhelmingly disapprove of Tillis’ handling of their health care. With the ACA’s anniversary putting health care back in the spotlight this week, 24% approve of Tillis on health care vs. 48% disapprove.

• Three-fourths of all voters (76%) have ‘very serious’ concerns about Tillis’ public health stances, including strong majorities of Independents and Republicans. Tillis’ belief that restaurants should be required to make their employees wash their hands draws strong concerns among Independents (77%) and Republicans (66%).

• 50% want Senator Burr to resign following his stock sell off scandal vs. just 24% who don’t. Huge majority of Independents (53/18) say he should resign; Republicans “only narrowly” say Burr doesn’t need to resign (31/38).

On top of that, Governor Cooper earned “overwhelmingly positive marks” for his steady leadership during the coronavirus outbreak, with 63% approving and just 19% disapproving.

Tillis’ bottom-of-the-basement numbers track with how North Carolinians have viewed him all year. Tillis is “strikingly unpopular,” and poll after poll after poll have found that more North Carolinians disapprove of him than approve.

Senator Tillis’ weakness with voters also explains why Mitch McConnell’s super PAC announced that it’s dumping nearly $22 million – a third of their announced spending – to prop him up. That investment comes after it spent nearly $3 million to meddle in the Democratic primary to avoid running against veteran Cal Cunningham.

Public Policy Polling: Majority Think Burr Should Resign; Tillis Unpopular Too
March 24, 2020

Key Points:

• PPP’s newest North Carolina poll finds that a majority of North Carolinians think Richard Burr should resign, and that his approval numbers have plummeted since revelations last week about his stock sales in the wake of the coronavirus.

• 50% of voters in the state think Burr should resign to 24% who think he should remain in office. Democrats (63/15) and independents (53/18) both think he should resign by wide margins but what might be most surprising is that even Republicans (31/38) only narrowly say Burr doesn’t need to resign.

• Only 22% of voters approve of the job Burr’s doing to 54% who disapprove. When PPP last polled on him in June he had a 32/36 approval spread- since then his disapproval is up 18 points and his approval has dropped by 10 points.

• When voters are informed later in the poll about his 1.7 million dollars in stock sales, 69% say that gives them ‘very serious’ concerns about him and support for his resignation goes up to 60%, with 22% opposed.

• Thom Tillis isn’t in very good standing with North Carolinians either. 26% approve of the job he’s doing to 47% who disapprove. The Affordable Care Act is in the spotlight this week upon its 10th anniversary, and on the specific issue of health care, just 24% approve of the job he’s doing to 48% who disapprove.

• A few years ago Tillis expressed the view that restaurants shouldn’t be required to make their employees wash their hands on the job. In the current crisis, 76% of voters say that Tillis’ comments on this issue give them ‘very serious’ concerns about him, which includes 84% of Democrats, 77% of independents, and 66% of Republicans.

• PPP interviewed 896 North Carolina voters on March 22nd and 23rd on behalf of Piedmont Rising and Progress NC Action. The margin of error is +/-3.3% and the full results are here

Politico: McConnell-aligned super PAC books $67M for fall Senate ads
By James Arkin
March 23, 2020

Key Points:

• Republicans’ top super PAC focused on Senate races is booking more than $67 million for TV ads this fall, a massive early investment in a core group of battleground states.

• The largest portion of the investment is in North Carolina, where SLF has booked $21.8 million in the race between first-term GOP Sen. Thom Tillis and Democrat Cal Cunningham. The state is likely to be among the most expensive in the country this fall, given its status as a presidential battleground that also includes competitive Senate, gubernatorial and House races. Democrats expended significant resources to boost Cunningham through the March primary, and SLF also spent nearly $3 million meddling in the primary on positive ads for his failed Democratic opponent.