Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are tied in a new poll of voters in North Carolina, a swing state that is looming larger in the national political outcome on Nov. 8.
The Democratic nominee and Republican hopeful each drew 41 percent support in a three-way contest, with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson earning 11 percent, according to a New York Times Upshot/Siena College Poll of Tar Heel State voters.
In a two-way contest, Clinton bests Trump by two percentage points.
North Carolina has 15 electoral votes. Democrats last carried the state in a presidential election in 2008, when President Barack Obama defeated Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona.
The poll is striking for several reasons. Among them: Democrats running for U.S. Senate and governor are also ahead, the former contest perhaps the biggest surprise. The two-term incumbent, Republican Richard Burr, was not initially viewed as vulnerable. But he trails Democrat Deborah Ross by 46-42 percent.
Republican Gov. Pat McCrory is running behind Democratic state Attorney General Roy Cooper, 50-42 percent. It shows McCrory clearly has suffered as a result of his support for HB2, the state law that overturned a city of Charlotte ordnance that extended certain rights to people who are gay or transgender.
Supporters of the law gave McCrory a 68-25 percentage point lead. Opponents backed Cooper, 78-16 percent.
Another notable development in the poll is the the divide that college degrees play, and the political imperatives it creates for Clinton.
Trump is ahead of the former secretary of state among white voters without college degrees by 49 percentage points, 66-17 percent. Clinton tops him among white voters with college degrees by just one percentage point, 39-38 percent.
Those numbers provide a window onto the overall racial divide in the race. Trump has a 25-percentage point lead over Clinton among white voters; Clinton has an 83-percentage point lead over Trump among black voters, and a 26-percentage point lead among Hispanic voters.
“The presidential election in North Carolina is up for grabs,” said Siena College Poll Director Don Levy. “Democrats have single digit leads in the races for U.S. Senate and Governor, but you can’t get any tighter than tied between Trump and Clinton.”
David Goldstein: 202-383-6105, @GoldsteinDavidJ