NC Poll: Clinton holds 6-point lead over Trump

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has a 6-point edge over Republican nominee Donald Trump in the battleground state of North Carolina, a new poll released Tuesday finds.

{mosads}A new Elon University poll found that Clinton leads Trump 45 percent to 39 percent. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson takes 9 percent, while 7 percent remain undecided or support another candidate.

The new poll is a significant bump up from other recent North Carolina surveys, which have found Clinton with a much smaller lead. The poll comes about one week after the first presidential debate of 2016, in which the former secretary of State was widely considered the winner.

“We are seeing an unusually strong post-debate bump for Clinton in North Carolina,” said Jason Husser, director of the Elon University poll. “A majority of N.C. voters thought Clinton won the debate, but future campaign events will determine if this bump is only temporary or more lasting.”

While Trump has been heavily courting African-American voters, the poll found that 98 percent of those voters back Clinton. Among female voters, 61 percent plan to vote for Clinton, while 56 percent of male voters are going to back the real estate mogul.

Clinton and Trump are investing heavily in the Tar Heel State, which went to President Obama by a razor-thin margin in 2008 but then flipped backed to the Republican column in 2012.

The poll was conducted from Sept. 27 to 30 and surveyed 660 likely voters via phone. The margin of error was 3.8 percentage points.