New polls show rising economic anxiety in North Carolina

A majority of North Carolinians across several polls say that costs are higher in President Donald Trump’s second term and that they are cutting back on spending as a result.

Most North Carolinians disapprove of President Donald Trump’s economic policies and are increasingly worried about rising prices and their ability to pay their bills, several new polls show. 

Trump frequently says that the US economy is the best in history, that costs are down, and that no one worries about affordability anymore. 

Each of these three new polls shows the opposite.

The Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service at Catawba College released two polls in recent weeks focused on Trump and economic issues. A separate poll by High Point University was released late in January. The polls may be from multiple sources, but they tell the same story: North Carolinians are worried about inflation and the effects of Trump’s tariffs on their daily budgets. 

The more recent of the Catawba polls, released earlier this month, found that 63% of respondents said prices are higher than a year ago, and 54% said that they were having trouble affording “their regular monthly expenses” as a result. That number is worse in rural areas, where 60% of respondents reported trouble affording expenses.

And 64% of respondents said they were “cutting back on their regular purchases” in response to rising costs.

The High Point University survey found similar results. It asked 1,000 NC adults whether they approved or disapproved of how Trump has handled several issues. Respondents disapproved of Trump’s effort by wide margins on five of the six main economic issues named, including his tariffs policy, inflation, taxes, and “the economy in general.”

On tariffs:

38% approve

51% disapprove

11% unsure

On inflation:

32% approve

60% disapprove 

8% unsure

On taxes:

37% approve

52% disapprove

11% unsure

On the economy in general:

40% approve

50% disapprove

10% unsure

The High Point poll showed that 48% of respondents disapproved of Trump’s handing of the presidency overall, while 41% approved.

The poll also asked detailed questions about respondents’ views of the several issues, and the economic answers were notable, suggesting a state facing widespread alarm about the state of the economy.

When asked if they were better off financially than a year ago or worse off, 38% said they were worse off. Only 26% said they were better off, and 33% said they were about the same.

Asked how they rated the “current U.S. economic conditions,” 63% said things were poor or only fair. Only 37% saw things as good or excellent. Forty-three percent felt the US economy was getting worse, compared to 31% who thought it was getting better. The other 27% felt things were staying the same.

Respondents disapproved of Trump’s tariff policies, 50 to 36%.

The margins around rising prices were even starker. The poll asked respondents whether prices were going up or down for several categories of routine expenses.

79% said the cost of meat is higher during Trump’s first year in office.

6% said prices are lower

12% said they are the same

69% said electricity is more expensive

6% said it’s less expensive

22% said it’s the same

59% said the cost of eggs was higher

20% said prices were lower

19% said they are the same

66% said the cost of vegetables is higher

6% said prices are lower

12% said they are the same

65% said the cost of clothes is higher

5% said prices are lower

27% said they are the same

Teetering between optimism and pessimism

The polls also reflect the topsy turvy uncertainty that economic fears often inspire.

The first Catawba poll released in February asked respondents whether they were optimistic or pessimistic about the country’s future over several time periods: 6 months, a year, and through the rest of Trump’s second term. The answers sloshed back and forth. The responses show that North Carolinians are grappling with that answer, and teetering back and forth between hope and despair.

Looking at the next 6 months, 43% of respondents said they were pessimistic and 40% expressed optimism. 

Widen to a year out, those feelings flipped, with 43% optimistic and 41% pessimistic. 

But over the next three years of Trump’s term, they flipped again, and pessimism increased its lead over optimism, with 45% of respondents saying pessimistic and 40% saying optimistic.

These pivots were also mostly on party times.

“At least seven-out-of-ten North Carolina Republicans are optimistic about the nation’s future, with that optimism hitting 80 percent for the last three years of Trump’s presidency,” Michael Bitzer, director of the Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service,  said in a news release accompanying the survey results. “However, pluralities of Independents and significant numbers of Democrats express pessimism throughout the time Trump has left in office.”

Small but telling margins

Polls are not elections, and aren’t of much use beyond the moment they are taken. They are snapshots of time, not a motion picture. But some issues are more resonant than others, less susceptible to whims. Economic issues are bellwethers in any election, but especially midterm elections.

And the prices of food, utilities, goods, medicine and housing are not political talking points, they are the bottom lines of day-to-day life. On these issues, Trump is underwater in North Carolina, a state he has never lost in a presidential election. 

When Trump isn’t running for office, his most ardent supporters tend to stay home, and if that trend continues, the margins exposed in the polls are more than enough to tip the scales across several races in a highly competitive state. 

Trump himself is not on the ballot in 2026, but his policies, and their effect on voters’ lives, most certainly will be.