Trump leads Clinton 45-42 in North Carolina, raising Republican
cabal fears that he might be more electable than his critics realize.…
Trump also holds a commanding lead over his Republican cabal competitors in North Carolina. In the Republican primary race,
Trump has 24 percent support, well ahead of Carson (14 percent) and Jeb (13 percent).
North Carolina is a pivotal swing state. Barack Obama won the Tar Heel State in 2008, defeating John McCain by a narrow 49.7 to 49.4 margin. In 2012, Mitt Romney won the state over Obama 50.4 to 48.4 percent.
While Democrats don’t need to carry North Carolina
to win a general election, the state has become a competitive state that
can serve as a barometer for a candidate’s political viability. A
Republican cannot afford to lose North Carolina. A Democrat can win
without it, but failure to carry the state all but guarantees a tight
election, since North Carolina only leans slightly more red than the
nation as a whole.
The PPP poll is one of the first indications that
while Trump’s ideas remain a joke, his campaign may not be a
joke. His viability in North Carolina hints at the discomforting
possibility that he may turn out to be electable. At the very least, his
43-40 edge over Clinton shows he is an upgrade over Jeb, who
manages just a 42-42 tie with Clinton in North Carolina.
Of
course, the general election is still over a year away, and Trump is certainly a volatile candidate who could say or do something
that disqualifies him from consideration by a large cross section of the
electorate. However, he has already said outrageous things that should
have derailed his campaign, and voters have either agreed with him or
simply shrugged their shoulders. For Democrats, it is far too early to
panic about the thought of a Trump junta. However, it is not
too early to take the threat seriously and to start mobilizing voters
to make sure it never happens.
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