Recent NC Elections by TV Station Viewership
In last week’s blog, Crowd React Media correctly predicted the victor of the North Carolina U.S. Senate contest between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Ted Budd. Our prediction turned out to be well within the margin of error, seeing we envisioned a roughly three point difference between the two in the final tally. Budd won the race with 50.7% of the vote, to Beasley’s 47.1%.
Economic concerns proved to be top-of-mind for NC voters. 49% of those surveyed by Crowd React Media stated that Economy/Inflation was their most important issue, substantially higher than issues like Healthcare and Abortion/Reproductive Issues (36% and 34%, respectively).
This week, carrying on with our November political survey results, we will dive into the media habits of registered voters in North Carolina, placing emphasis on local TV news stations in the metropolitan areas of Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham. Also, we will be charting their local TV news preferences with the candidates they voted for in the 2020 election. We want to demonstrate our ability to track voter preferences and attitudes, with their unique behaviors as media consumers.
To get us started, we asked registered N.C. voters which Presidential candidate they voted for in 2020. Let’s look at what we found below.
Graph (below): Which Presidential Candidate did you vote for in the 2020 General Election? (Raleigh-Durham vs. Charlotte)
Among those surveyed, 56% in the Raleigh-Durham metro went for Joe Biden over Donald Trump (42%) in the 2020 General Election. Charlotte skewed slightly more towards Trump at 51% to 49%. This is a macro snapshot of the major NC metros. However, when apprised of the local TV news affiliates preferred by those surveyed, we were able to be more granular in our analysis.
2020 Presidential Election
Here are how viewers of respective local TV news affiliates in the Raleigh-Durham metro voted in 2020:
Graph (below): Which Presidential Candidate did you vote for in the 2020 General Election? (Raleigh-Durham TV Audiences)
Above represents the primary local TV news affiliates in the Raleigh-Durham metro: WRAL/WRAZ (NBC/FOX), CBS17, ABC11, and Spectrum news. WRAL had a sizable tilt towards Biden at 65% to Trump at 35%. CBS17’s audience largely preferred Trump 57% over Biden 43%. ABC11 is roughly even in its voter allotment, with 48% having voted for Biden to Trump’s 52%. Spectrum, like WRAL, swings heavily towards Biden voters, at 61%.
As for the Charlotte Metropolitan area, here are our findings:
Graph (below): Which Presidential Candidate did you vote for in the 2020 General Election? (Charlotte TV Audiences)
The major local TV news affiliates are represented by WSOC (ABC), WBTV (CBS), WCNC (NBC), Queen City News (FOX), and Spectrum. WSOC and WCNC were split in their 2020 candidate choice. WBTV (CBS) and Queen City News (Fox) had a marked preference for Donald Trump among their viewers (57% and 65%, respectively), whereas Spectrum news had a big Biden lean in its viewership.
2022 Senate Race
Now let us take a look at the 2022 Senate race in North Carolina.
Here are how viewers of respective local TV news affiliates in the Raleigh-Durham metro voted in 2022 Senate Election:
Graph (below): Who do you plan to vote for U.S. Senator in the 2022 North Carolina Midterm Elections? (Raleigh-Durham TV Audiences)
Above represents the primary local TV news affiliates in the Raleigh-Durham metro: WRAL/WRAZ (NBC/FOX), CBS17, ABC11, and Spectrum news. WRAL was split between Beasley at 43% to Budd at 45%. CBS17’s audience was also divided between Beasley at 46% to Budd at 48%. ABC11 had a shift towards Beasley with 48% vs. Budd’s 38%. Spectrum, like ABC11, swings heavily towards Beasley voters, at 51%.
As for the Charlotte Metropolitan area, here are our findings:
Graph (below): Who do you plan to vote for U.S. Senator in the 2022 North Carolina Midterm Elections? (Charlotte TV Audiences)
Beasley led WSOC (48%), WCNC (58%) and Spectrum (51%), whereas Budd was the winner at WBTV (57%), and Queen City News (78%). The only station that did not have undecided and/or third-party voters was Queen City News.
Be sure to read next week’s entry as we dive into the core interests and issues of local tv news viewers in the Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte metros. Thanks for reading!
- Study conducted in early November, 2022.
- 250 Registered North Carolina Voters Ages 18+
