New poll shows Biden leading Trump by 6 points in North Carolina

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leads President Trump by 6 points in North Carolina with just four days to go until Election Day, according to a new NBC News/Marist poll released on Friday. 

Democrats have become increasingly bullish on their chances of winning North Carolina, a key battleground state that Trump carried by nearly 4 points in 2016. The latest NBC News/Marist poll shows Biden with the support of 52 percent of likely voters in the Tar Heel State, while Trump trails at 46 percent.

Biden’s lead in North Carolina is driven in part by strong support among college-educated white voters, a group that Trump won by a nearly 20-point margin four years ago. Biden now has the advantage with those voters, leading Trump 61 percent to 38 percent. 

Trump, on the other hand, draws strong support from white voters without college degrees, leading Biden 70 percent to 28 percent. He also has majority support among men, 55 percent of whom back the president, while 42 percent back Biden. 

Biden is also performing significantly better among seniors than Hillary Clinton in 2016, when Trump won voters 65 and older in the state by a 23-point margin. The NBC News/Marist poll currently shows Trump and Biden statistically tied with those voters, garnering 50 percent and 49 percent support, respectively. 

The poll also shows Democrat Cal Cunningham leading Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) by 10 points in the Senate race in North Carolina. Gov. Roy Cooper (D), meanwhile, holds a staggering 19-point lead over his Republican challenger, Lt. Gov. Dan Forrest.

With 15 electoral votes up for grabs, North Carolina is one of the top prizes in the 2020 presidential contest. The state has tended to go for Republicans in the past, with the exception of 2008, when former President Obama won the state.

The NBC News/Marist poll surveyed 800 likely voters in North Carolina from Oct. 25-28. It has a margin of sampling error of 4.7 percentage points.