GOP poll shows tied NC Senate race

North Carolina House Speaker (R) is tied with Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) in his latest internal poll.

{mosads}Tillis and Hagan are tied at 44 percent apiece, with Libertarian nominee Sean Haugh pulling 8 percent in the live-caller poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for Tillis’s campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Both candidates remain unpopular — Hagan’s approval rating is at 41 percent with 47 percent disapproving, while Tillis is at 33 percent approval and 37 disapproval.

President Obama also remains unpopular in the state and a drag on Hagan, with a 41 percent approval rating and a 56 percent disapproval rating.

Democrats have long banked on the unpopularity of North Carolina’s state legislature dragging Tillis down, but this poll indicates it’s not as disliked as some Democrats suggest — 44 percent of voters approve of the legislature while 46 percent disapprove.

Partisan polls should always be taken with a grain of salt, though most recent public polling shows a tight race between the two in one of the GOP’s top pickup targets this fall.

The live-caller poll of 600 likely voters, including 180 on cell phones, was conducted from Sept. 2-4 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.