Raleigh – A new poll out this morning of North Carolina Republican primary voters reveals that Senator Tillis is losing serious ground in his nasty Republican primary because he continues to have a “credibility” problem with base Republicans. From the poll:

• Senator Tillis is underwater with Republican primary voters (34% approve vs. 38% disapprove)

• Tillis is barely leading self-funding conservative primary challenger Garland Tucker in a head-to-head matchup among GOP primary voters (38%-31%)

• Tillis’ favorability trails President Trump by 52 points with the Republican base (86% have a favorable opinion of Trump vs. 34% for Tillis)

• Tillis is running 78 points behind President Trump in net approval rating from the GOP primary base (Tillis net approval rating -4% vs. Trump net approval rating +76%)

Today’s poll matches closely to other polling from the race:

• Internal polling from GOP primary challenger Tucker showed “double digit gains on incumbent Thom Tillis,” with Tillis ahead just 40%-30%.

• A Morning Consult poll revealed Senator Tillis has the lowest approval ratings among any senator, and is “down 3 points since the first quarter of 2019 and 11 points since Trump took office.”

• An April Morning Consult poll showed Tillis has “the second-lowest base support among GOP Senators up in 2020” and has “lost credibility with North Carolina Republicans.”

2019 has been an unmitigated disaster for Senator Tillis. As one North Carolina Republican put it, Tillis is “so far underwater, you need a SCUBA tank, not a snorkel” because of “self-inflicted wounds” like his now-infamous “Olympic gold flip-flop” that put funding for military bases on the chopping block.

Meanwhile, he’s done everything he can to alienate independents and swing voters – from confirming his support for a lawsuit to gut protections for preexisting conditions, to bragging that he was the one who blocked Medicaid expansion, to skipping a Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing for a political fundraiser, and refusing to stand up for commonsense gun safety reforms.”

“Senator Tillis’ credibility problem with North Carolina Republican voters is not going away because he’s a weak and spineless pay-to-play politician who can’t be trusted,” NCDP spokesman Robert Howard said. “It’s clear that Tillis is one of the most vulnerable Senators in the entire country, and the question over the coming months will be whether he even survives this Republican primary and makes it to the general election.”