Marshall Leads Democratic Pack for N.C. Senate Nomination, but Most Voters Are Undecided

North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall leads the field of Democrats hoping to challenge Republican Sen. Richard Barr in the fall, but at this point in the campaign, "undecided" tops Marshall by more than a 2-to-1 margin, according to a Public Policy Polling survey conducted March 12-15.

Marshall musters 20 percent in the poll, followed by former state Sen. Cal Cunningham at 16 percent and lawyer and Democratic fundraiser Kenneth Lewis at 11 percent. Two other candidates are in low single digits and 47 percent are undecided. The margin of error is 4.8 points.

Sixty-three percent of voters did not know enough about Marshall to express a favorable or unfavorable opinion, and that number was 79 percent for Lewis and 83 percent for Cunningham.
"As long as none of the candidates have over 50 percent name recognition, no one's going to break away from the pack," said PPP's Dean Debnam. "It's entirely possible that this will end up as basically a two-week campaign, with most voters making their decisions at the end of April."

The primary is May 4.

In a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted in late February, Burr was leading Marshall, 50 percent to 34 percent, and Cunningham by 51 percent to 29 percent. The poll did not test Lewis.

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