With the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency and cuts made to 14 federal agencies throughout President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, most North Carolinians do not favor the cutbacks and elimination of federal agencies, according to a recent Elon Poll.
This poll, released March 25, found that a plurality of North Carolinians said they favor minor reductions or no change to the 14 agencies experiencing cuts including the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Agency for International Development and most recently the Department of Education.
While most North Carolinians believe there should be some minor reduction or no change to federal agencies, out of the 800 North Carolina adults polled, 33% believe there should be an increase in funding for the Department of Education. This compares to 30% who believe there should be minor reductions or no change and 25% who believe there should be major reductions or the department should be eliminated.
Elon Poll found that though North Carolinians were mostly in favor of minor reduction or no change, there was a division between political party affiliations about cutting federal agencies.
According to Elon Poll, Republicans were more in favor of major cutbacks. 41% of Republicans favor the elimination of the U.S. Agency of International Development, 38% favor the elimination of the Department of Education and 30% favor the elimination of public broadcasting such as PBS and NPR.
Director of Elon Poll, Jason Husser, said while he wasn’t surprised by the Republican support, he thought more Republicans would be more approving.
“For the most part, we were finding that many Republicans did not want to see these cuts happen,” Husser said. “Even among President Trump's base, there's not widespread support for cutting many of the federal agencies.”
For North Carolina Democrats, Elon Poll found that they were more likely to favor no change or even an increase in funding with 51% of Democrats favoring an increase for the Department of Education and a 51% increase for the Center for Disease Control.
North Carolinians also have differing views on how this will affect the state based on their political affiliation.
Husser said that despite the difference in political views, North Carolina is a good state to poll on national issues such as presidential approval, immigration and federal agency cuts. According to Husser, Elon Poll’s sample is meant to mirror North Carolina’s demographic makeup.
“Typically, North Carolinians look, or have numbers that look, a lot like the rest of the country as a whole,” Husser said. “Usually, North Carolina is within five percentage points of what we'd find in a national survey, and that's largely due to the fact that North Carolina is a swing state.”
According to Elon Poll, 76% of North Carolina Democrats believe these federal agency cuts will have a negative impact on the state while 64% of Republicans believe the cuts will have a positive impact on North Carolina.
Elon Poll also found North Carolinians’ trust in Elon Musk is also dependent on party affiliation with 85% of Democrats saying they completely or somewhat distrust Musk while 76% of Republicans completely or somewhat trust him.
Aside from federal agency cuts, the Elon Poll also assessed the Trump administrations’ handling of immigration which was evenly split on whether it will have a positive or negative impact. However, Elon Poll did see a 17% decrease in supporting a program that provided a pathway to citizenship to people who were in the country illegally. Previously Elon Poll assessed opinions about pathways to citizenship in 2013, when 80% of North Carolinians supported a path to citizenship.
In addition to immigration and federal agency cuts, Elon Poll assessed Trump’s approval rating for his second term in office. Overall, 42% of North Carolinians approved of his performance while 45% disapproved. President Trump's disapproval ratings were highest amongst Democrats, Black people, women and people with four-year college degrees, while Trump’s approval ratings were highest among Republicans, white people and men.
While this current poll focused on how North Carolinians feel about national issues, Husser said Elon Poll is currently surveying how Americans feel about national issues and will be publishing a poll about how North Carolinians feel about state issues.