RALEIGH -- A High Point University Poll finds that North Carolinians give President Donald Trump a job approval rating of 40 percent. Meanwhile, a majority (64 percent) continue to say the country is headed in the wrong direction, and North Carolina residents are split on who they would vote for in U.S. Congressional and North Carolina General Assembly races if they were held today.

Half (50 percent) of North Carolina residents say they disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as president, and the remaining 11 percent do not offer an opinion.

Just over one quarter (28 percent) of respondents say the country is headed in the right direction, which is similar to the 26 percent who said they felt the same way in March 2017.  In the current poll, 8 percent of respondents did not offer an opinion either way.

When asked about their choices for U.S. Congress, 41 percent of North Carolinians say they would vote for the Democratic Party’s candidate if the election were held today, and 35 percent say they would vote for the Republican Party’s candidate. A relatively substantial 19 percent say they did not know or were unsure for whom they would vote.

There were similar responses to these “generic ballot” questions about the elections for houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. Forty percent of these North Carolinians say they prefer the Democratic Party’s candidate in their local race for North Carolina House of Representatives, and 35 percent say they would vote Republican if the election was today with 21 percent undecided. Finally, 40 percent of the same respondents say they would vote Democratic in their local race for North Carolina Senate compared to 37 percent who say they would vote Republican and 19 percent who remain undecided or did not offer an opinion.

“The most recent HPU Poll continues to show consistency in how North Carolinians feel about the job the president is doing,” says Brian McDonald, associate director of the HPU Poll and adjunct instructor of survey research methods. “This small deviation might not indicate any significant shift in how the state feels, and we will continue to track the public’s reactions to our Commander in Chief.”