RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — With North Carolina in the national spotlight for the 2024 Election, a new poll sponsored by Elon University is shedding light on how the races for president and governor are shaping up.

In both 2016 and 2020, North Carolina voters split their tickets — voting for Republican Donald Trump to be president and Democrat Roy Cooper to be governor. Polling suggests a similar outcome could happen in 2024, even without Cooper on the ticket.

The new poll from Elon University found both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump viewed favorably by just about half of voters.

That similar favorability means the presidential race in North Carolina — and subsequently the state’s key 16 electoral votes — is a tossup. This is corroborated by the amount of attention both campaigns have given North Carolina, with each visiting multiple times over the last several weeks.

Polling for the governor’s race is much different. The same responders in the poll favored Democrat Josh Stein to Republican Mark Robinson by a 14-point margin.

“This is not because Stein is exceptionally popular his numbers are about like that of Harris, but rather Stein’s 14-point lead in favorability is because Robinson is far less popular than Trump among both Republicans and independents. The Trump base in North Carolina among Republicans and the Trump-leaning Independents are not going to Robinson at the level that one may have expected early on in this campaign,” said Jason Husser, the director of the Elon University poll.

Trump and Robinson are closely aligned politically and have even campaigned together as recently as last week in Asheboro, but the poll director believes there could be a reason for the difference in popularity.

“Donald Trump is a unique figure in American political history, we will be talking the idiosyncratic nature of Trump in politics for years in the future. Robinson while having some of the same positions as Trump is not Trump, and so we haven’t seen some of that support carry over with other Republicans,” Husser said.

Robinson’s campaign doesn’t believe that difference will hurt his chances, telling ABC11 in a statement:

“Polls have consistently underestimated Republican support in North Carolina for several cycles now and with a large portion of the electorate still undecided as we continue to ramp up our efforts on the ground and on the airwaves, Mark Robinson remains in a strong position to win in November.”

In an era of political division and polarization, ticket splitting is becoming more rare. In fact, 85 percent of North Carolinians polled said they would be voting the same party in both major races, but the poll found about 1 in 6 North Carolinians are open to voting for different parties for President and Governor.

And in a close race, that could be decisive as in was in 2016 and 2020. But who are these Trump-Cooper or potential Trump-Stein voters?

“The people who are splitting their ticket are often people who are not necessarily moderate, they’re not necessarily independents, but they’re not people who define themselves based on their attachment to a political party so closer to the middle than the far right or the far left,” Husser said.

The poll also found that the economy was important to 90 percent of North Carolinians in that poll. It also found North Carolinians are worried about the aftermath of the election, almost 75 percent of voters were concerned about the possibility of political violence after the election.

North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is trailing Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein in the state’s closely watched gubernational race, according to a new poll.

The ActiVote survey has Stein leading Robinson by eight points, 54 percent to 46 percent.

It was conducted among 400 likely voters between July 26 and August 26, and has an average expected error of 4.9 percent.

Several other polls conducted in August also have Stein leading Robinson by at least eight points, according to poll aggregator FiveThirty Eight.

A High Point University/Survey USA poll conducted among 1,053 registered voters between August 19 and 21 had Stein leading by 14 points, 48 percent to 34 percent.

The Stein and Robinson campaigns have been contacted for comment via email.

North Carolina’s gubernatorial race is expected to be close. The battleground state has voted Republican in recent presidential elections, but Democrats have won seven out of the eight governor’s races since 1992.

Stein is seeking to keep the governor’s office under his party’s control after two terms under outgoing Governor Roy Cooper, who described Robinson as “the most extreme statewide candidate in the country right now.”

Cooper told Politico earlier this month that he withdrew from consideration to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in part because he feared Robinson could try to seize power in his absence.

“If I were to be out of state at a campaign event, if I had been the vice-presidential nominee, he could claim he was acting governor,” Cooper said.

Robinson, who would be North Carolina’s first Black governor if elected, is a controversial figure with a history of attacks on women, Muslims, Jews and the LGBTQ+ community, and pushing conspiracy theories.

He has used words like “filth” and “maggots” when talking about the LGBTQ+ community and said in 2019 that mass shootings were “karma” for American’s support of abortion rights.

He also sparked criticism after saying that Black Americans are not owed reparations for slavery, saying: “If you want to tell the truth about it, it is YOU who owes!”

Former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Robinson in March, has called him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

“In North Carolina, campaigns are decided by small margins in November,” Stein’s campaign manager Jeff Allen told Newsweek earlier this month.

“Over the next three months, we will continue to work to earn every vote in every corner of the state so that North Carolinians know the clear choice in this race: Josh Stein, who fights for a safer, stronger North Carolina, versus Mark Robinson, who fights job-killing culture wars.”

RALEIGH, N.C. — The mother of a touted high school quarterback who has committed to play for the Tennessee Volunteers is suing the state of North Carolina over its restrictions against public-school athletes cashing in on their fame.

Rolanda Brandon filed the complaint last week in Wake County Superior Court. Her son is Greensboro Grimsley quarterback Faizon Brandon, who is ranked No. 32 in the ESPN Junior 300 and is the No. 4 pocket passer in the class.

The North Carolina State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction are named as defendants. The lawsuit followed a policy adopted in June blocking the state’s public-school athletes from making money through the use of their name, image and likeness.

“The State Board of Education was asked to create rules allowing public high school athletes to use their NIL — it was not empowered to ban it,” Charlotte-based attorney Mike Ingersoll said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer. “We look forward to correcting the State Board’s error and to help our client benefit from the incredible value and opportunities his hard work and commitment have created for his name, image, and likeness.”

The complaint states that “a prominent national trading card company” had agreed to pay for Faizon to sign memorabilia before graduation, offering the family “financial security for years to come,” WRAL of Raleigh reported.

North Carolina is among the states that don’t permit NIL activities such as endorsements for public appearances at camps or autograph signings, all of which have become common at the college level.

That restriction, however, doesn’t apply to private-school athletes, such as fellow Tennessee recruit David Sanders, the No. 4 overall prospect in the 2025 ESPN 300 who plays for Charlotte’s Providence Day School. Sanders has a website dedicated toward selling merchandise with his own image.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.