Facing re-election in 2014, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan leads potential Republican challengers who are either unknown or unpopular in North Carolina by a narrow margin, a new poll from Public Policy Polling finds.
Hagan’s job performance is slightly underwater, with 34 percent of approving and 36 percent disapproving. Still, Hagan leads potential challengers by six to 10 points.
A big part of why the Republicans fare so poorly is that they’re pretty much unknown at this juncture. Foxx at 49% has the highest name recognition, followed by McHenry at 40%, Ellmers at 37%, Berger at 35%, Tillis at 33%, Pittenger at 31%, and Holding at 29%. There’s a good chance this race will get closer as Republicans settle around a candidate and that person builds up their profile across the state.
The survey of 608 North Carolina voters was conducted Jan. 10-13 and has a margin of error of +/- 4.0 percentage points.
