A new poll finds former Vice President Joe Biden with a commanding lead over President Trump in North Carolina, a state the president narrowly won in 2016.
The Emerson College survey finds Biden ahead of Trump by 12 points, 56 percent to 44 percent.
{mosads}The poll found Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) holding a 54 percent to 46 percent advantage over Trump, while South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) leads by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin. Trump is tied with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), with each getting 50 percent support, and he leads Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) 51percent to 49 percent, within the survey’s margin of error.
Trump carried North Carolina in 2016 by 3.6 points over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but Democrats are optimistic they can flip it in 2020. North Carolina has gone for the GOP presidential nominee in every election cycle since 1980, with the exception of 2008 when former President Obama won there by half a percentage point.
Republicans will hold their nominating convention next year in Charlotte.
Trump’s approval rating in North Carolina is underwater — 41 percent positive and 52 percent negative.
Biden holds a significant lead over the rest of the Democratic field in North Carolina, which is one of 12 states to vote on Super Tuesday. Biden has 39 percent support, followed by Sanders at 22 percent, Warren at 15 percent, Buttigieg at 8 percent and Harris at 5 percent.
Sixty-two percent of Democratic primary voters say they could still change their minds before the state’s primary on March 3.
The Emerson College poll of 932 registered voters was conducted between May 31 and June 3 and has a 3.1 percentage point margin of error.