The North Carolina Senate race between Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Democratic rival Deborah Ross is a statistical dead heat, a new poll shows.
A survey released Wednesday from left-leaning Public Policy Polling found that Burr leads the former state representative by 3 points, 39 to 36 percent, within the poll’s margin of error.
Pollsters also found that 40 percent of registered voters disapprove of the job the GOP senator is doing, compared to 28 percent who said he’s doing a good job. Ross, however, remains widely unknown, with 64 percent having no opinion about her.
The poll also found that a majority of North Carolina voters — 58 percent — want the Senate to hold a hearing for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, while 24 percent are opposed. Forty-two percent of voters say they would be less likely to vote for a Senate candidate who opposes a hearing, compared to 25 percent who say they would be more likely to vote for that candidate.
Burr agrees with Senate GOP leadership that the next president should fill the court vacancy.
“It continues to look like the Senate race will join the contests for Governor and President in North Carolina as highly competitive,” Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, said in a statement. “Richard Burr just isn’t all that popular, and that has Deborah Ross within striking distance of him.”
The poll of 928 registered voter, conducted from May 20 to 22, has a margin of error was 3.2 percentage points.
-This report was updated at 12:59 p.m.