7-point lead

Poll: Biden notches 7-point lead in North Carolina

The swing state’s Democratic candidates for governor and Senate led their races by even wider margins.

By QUINT FORGEY

Former Vice President Joe Biden holds a 7-percentage-point advantage over President Donald Trump in the swing state of North Carolina, according to a new survey — with the state’s Democratic candidates for governor and Senate also leading their Republican rivals ahead of November’s general election.

An NBC News/Marist poll released Monday reports that a majority of North Carolina registered voters surveyed, 51 percent, support Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, while 44 percent prefer Trump.

The survey also shows down-ballot Democrats in North Carolina enjoying even more commanding leads in their closely watched races a little more than three months before Election Day.

Democratic Senate candidate Cal Cunningham, who is challenging Republican incumbent Thom Tillis, achieved 50 percent support among registered voters surveyed compared to Tillis’ 41 percent in the NBC News/Marist poll.

And Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is seeking a second term in office, outperformed Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, by a margin of 58-38 points.

The survey’s results come after a recent spate of polling in other swing states showed Trump trailing Biden significantly in the battlegrounds he captured four years ago to seize the presidency. Trump won North Carolina by 3.8 percentage points in 2016.

Biden opened up a 13-point lead over Trump among registered voters in the president’s adopted home state of Florida, according to a Quinnipiac University poll published last Thursday.

A series of CNN-SSRS state polls released Sunday reported Biden leading Trump by margins of 51 percent to 46 percent in Florida; 49 percent to 45 percent in Arizona; and by 52 percent to 40 percent in Michigan.

In 2016, Trump won Florida by 1.3 percentage points, won Arizona by 4.1 percentage points and won Michigan by 0.3 percentage points.

The NBC News/Marist poll was conducted July 14-22, surveying 1,067 adults with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. The margin of error among the 882 registered voters surveyed is plus-or-minus 4.0 percentage points.