The poll also showed Democratic senatorial candidate Cal Cunningham leading the Republican incumbent Senator Thom Tillis by four percentage points, 43 to Tillis’ 41 percent. Their contentious race is one that will decide which party controls the Senate.
The progressive think tank, Data for Progress, asked 929 likely voters which candidate they’d vote for if the election were held tomorrow. The poll occurred from October 15 and 18, before the final presidential debate on October 22.
Among all likely voters, Biden beat Trump by 4 percentage points. Among the 16 percent of those who had already voted, 68 percent chose Biden and 31 chose Trump. Among the 83 percent who hadn’t already voted, 47 percent preferred Trump and 44 percent preferred Biden.
Of the 6 percent of undecided voters in the group, 11 percent said they’d choose Biden and 2 percent said they’d choose Trump.
Among the nearly 16 percent of those who had already voted, 14 percent of Republicans voted for Biden and 0 percent of Democrats voted for Trump, suggesting that Biden has won over more Republican early voters than Trump has Democratic early voters.
Among the nearly 84 percent of respondents who hadn’t yet voted, 3 percent of Republicans said they’d vote for Biden and 5 percent of Democrats said they’d vote for Trump. Put another way, among 781 future voters, 39 self-identified Democrats said they’d vote for Trump and 23 self-identified Republicans said they’d vote for Biden.
For the senatorial race, those who had already voted said they overwhelmingly chose Cunningham over Tillis. While 70 percent chose Cunningham, 26 percent chose Tillis. Among those who had not yet voted, 43 percent said they’d choose Tillis and 41 percent chose Cunningham.
State polls have Cunningham beating Tillis by 1.7 percentage points as of October 23, according to the poll aggregator Real Clear Politics. On October 23, the poll analysis site FiveThirtyEight said Democrats have an 80 percent chance of holding anywhere from 48 to 55 Senate seats, potentially giving them a majority.
On the same date, Real Clear Politics also showed Biden beating Trump nationally, with Biden’s 50.7 percent lead beating Trump’s 42.8 percent.
North Carolina has 15 electoral votes. In the 2016 presidential election, Trump beat Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton 49.83 percent to 46.17 percent, winning 173,315 more votes than her.
Newsweek contacted the Trump campaign for comment.