According to a new poll conducted by Elon University, North Carolinians don’t favor the elimination of, or major cutbacks at, the more than one dozen federal agencies now being targeted for reduction by President Donald Trump and the new Department of Government Efficiency – an effort being led by multi-billionaire Elon Musk. (No relation.)
The survey, which was conducted in early March, looked at opinions from a representative sample of 800 North Carolina adults. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4%.
When participants were asked about funding for 14 specific federal agencies, a plurality of North Carolinians said they favor only minor reductions or no change at all for them.
For half of the agencies asked about, respondents said they would actually support more funding instead of reductions or elimination.
When it came to the US Department of Education, 33% favored increased funding, compared to 25% who favored the elimination of, or major reductions at, that department.
Similarly, 35% of those participating wanted to see more funding for the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
Only 10% favored major reductions for the VA.
Also, less than 20% of those participating in the poll were in favor of major reductions at, or the elimination of, the National Weather Service, US Department of Agriculture, Defense Department, Department of Justice, Centers for Disease Control, Department of the Interior, National Institutes of Health, and the FBI.
Republicans were generally more in favor of major cutbacks – with 41% of Republicans favoring the elimination of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), compared with only 2% of Democrats. That program battles disease and addresses other problems in struggling countries around the world.
According to the poll, 38% of Republicans favored the elimination of the US Department of Education and 30% favored elimination of public broadcasting – that is, PBS and NPR – compared with only 2% of Democrats favoring the elimination of either of those agencies.
Jason Husser, the director of the Elon University poll, said, “Our poll results suggest that Democratic efforts to rally public support around the Department of Education are having some impact in North Carolina.”
The poll found that 51% of those responding favored an increase in US Department of Education funding (compared with 16% of Republicans favoring increased funding), and 51% favoring increased funding for the Centers for Disease Control (compared with 10% of Republicans favoring increased funding).
A good portion of both Democrats and Republicans favored increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, including 43% of Democrats and 30% of Republicans. In assessing the impact of a reduction in federal spending and federal employees and the elimination of research grants, 44% said there would be a very negative or somewhat negative impact in North Carolina. That’s compared to 34% who expect to see a positive impact. A majority of Democrats – 76% – expect negative fallout from the federal spending cuts. That compares with 64% of Republicans who expect a positive impact to result.
The poll also asked about DOGE and Elon Musk: 51% said they don’t believe Musk is working in the best interests of the public in his stated effort to promote government efficiency. On the other hand, 40% said they trusted in the tech billionaire’s efforts.
Among Democrats, 85% said they either completely or somewhat distrust Musk, while 76% of Republicans “completely” or “somewhat” trust him.
Only 34% of poll respondents said they expect that there will be a major reduction in overall federal government spending within a few years; 45% expect no change or a minor reduction in overall spending, with 21% expecting to see government spending increase in that time frame.
Half of North Carolinians questioned in the poll support NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s decision to join other attorneys general from 18 other states in filing a lawsuit to stop DOGE from accessing US Treasury Department records that contain personal information on millions of Americans.
In the poll, 28% opposed Jackson’s decision and 22% were unsure.
Husser commented in a statement on the results: “Though polls have found for decades that the public is skeptical about the overall federal bureaucracy, we are not finding unified support for budget cuts when it comes to specific parts of the bureaucracy. Rather, for functions like Veteran Affairs, we are finding a large majority of people in the key swing state of North Carolina wanting to see funding maintained or increased. Society is experiencing the disconnect between a desire to see less federal spending in the abstract and the reality that many of the agencies and departments are engaged in work that is broadly popular.”
As for Immigration, North Carolinians in the poll were evenly split over the impact of the Trump administration’s actions to deport immigrants who are in the United States illegally. There was a split down the middle of those who expect to see positive and negative effects on the nation’s economy and their local workforce resulting from the deportations.
Nearly 40% of North Carolina residents said the impact of the Trump administration’s plan to deport undocumented immigrants will have a very or somewhat positive impact on the local workforce where they live – while 37% said the impact would be negative. In the poll, 9% said there wouldn’t be any impact, and 15% said they didn’t know what would occur.
The Elon University poll found that 63% of those responding would support a program to provide undocumented immigrants living in the United States with a pathway to become citizens if they meet certain requirements such as background checks and paying any fines and taxes they owed. That’s a reduction in support from a 2013 Elon University Poll when 80% of those polled supported providing undocumented immigrants with a pathway to citizenship.
The university compared the current results with an Elon University poll on immigration conducted in 2013 and the findings were similar on the issue. In both polls, 51% said immigrants are “a benefit to North Carolina” due to their hard work and job skills. In 2013, 37% said immigrants were “a burden” in the state since they use public services. In the 2025 Elon University Poll, that percentage has dropped to 31%.
When it comes to the matter of Trump’s job approval, the poll found that, for this, his second term in office, 45% of North Carolinians disapproved of his job performance with 42% approving.
Trump’s disapproval ratings were – no surprise – highest among Democrats (87%).
As for other disapproval ratings by group, they fall in like this: Blacks (74%), women (51%) and those with four-year college degrees (51%).
Trump’s approval ratings were highest among Republicans (83%), whites (52%) and men (51%).
Trump’s approval ratings in the new poll are the same as they were in a poll taken by Elon University soon after Trump took office in 2017. In that April 2017 poll, 51% of North Carolinians disapproved of Trump’s job performance, while 42% approved of his performance at that time.
“On the surface it might seem surprising that President Trump’s approval rating is slightly negative in North Carolina, despite him winning the state by three points less than five months ago,” Husser said. “I attribute much of this gap to the switch from a campaign style focused on being the outsider promising disruption of the status quo, to the reality since January 20 of leading the party in charge and lacking the immediate foil of a Democratic incumbent.”
Elon should have been out actually questioning the people out and around Alamance County and Guilford County instead of just around the college. That is why the poll shows what it does. They did not actually reach out be on the college area. It is well known that Elon college is more on the Democratic side so therefore they are going to say that. I don’t think that pool was fair and I think Elon should redo it. They need to actually go out and reach the people instead of just the college area which is already biased against trump.
A ‘representative sample’ means they polled people well beyond just those around the college. It was a statewide survey and sample size was established as a subset of a population that accurately reflects the characteristics of the State. Hope that helps you understand the data accuracy better.
But you be you
If what you write is accurate, Elon should provide the provide the data of the ones interviewed: geographic location, sex, ages, race, party affiliation, and the method Elon used to select those interviewed. There are so many ways to skew a survey.
People were interviewed across the state. You believe that the campus is overly liberal and skewing the data. While that may be true for Alamance County, you’re suffering the same delusion for the state. Alamance county is overly conservative, when compared with the rest of the state. Leave your echo chamber, leave Alamance county and look around. You’ll see that this is indeed representative of the state.
Very good point Pat
* Elon University’s polling is always “push polling”, designed to produce a left wing result.
It can’t be believed.
Deny, deny, deny….cry out that it’s a fraud…build a conspiracy theory to reject anything that doesn’t feed their agenda and biased beliefs! That’s how conservatives discuss topics. Thanks for sharing such a fine example on conservative debate methodology, Austin.
Go Eff yourself.
The results if this poll indicates more about why we are better served as a representative democracy. Too often, individuals have opinions based on emotion instead of facts. It is quite telling that so many people disagree with reducing bureaucratic spending and bloated staffing in the face of out of control debt.
I think it is more about HOW they are reducing spending and WHY they are reducing spending. It isn’t about debt reduction. It is about giving more tax relief to Wealthy tax dodgers such as Trump and Musk.
Just a reminder that Trump plans to INCREASE the deficit, not reduce it. All while tanking the economy.
I do find it interesting that anyone would support the Dept of Education. Clearly those that indicated support for this organization do not understand the dramatic fall from grace that our nation’s educational system has undergone. We spend more more per pupil than other similar countries and yet our outcomes are abysmal. Sadly, the same can be said for our healthcare system.
I am strongly in favor of bringing rationality and efficiency to the government. I do believe that the cuts that are being proposed and executed on should be based on solid evidence.
For context, I am a white male with a graduate degree.
Our university outcomes are rather impressive. But sure, we need improvement to our public k-12 system. But don’t worry, we have cut the legs out from under our university systems too so they can fail as well while also cutting off the innovation that drives a big part of our economy.
He who pays for a study usually get’s the results they want. This is a good case of liberal indoctrination.
He who don’t trust math just continue to believe whatever they want. This is a good example of conservative cult culture.
Remember, the first sign you are in a cult is that they tell you everyone else is lying.
But you be you.
Yup! The college professors and college kids at Elon are like the Board of Directors at NPR : 100% Leftist.
They engineer the result they want.
The facts on USAID actual spending don’t support the measured opinions, leading me to believe we have low information mainstream media opinions in the poll. If this represents the whole state, we deserve the bankruptcy these opinions promote.
If the sampling was legit, I am concerned that people just want to throw more money into a FAILING SCHOOL SYSTEM. These people obviously ‘learnt’ education in those FAILING SCHOOLS. There is a reason FOREIGN STUDENTS CONSISTENTLY AND REPEATEDLY BEAT US STUDENTS. Money alone does not solve a problem. IT TAKES LOCAL CONTROL of schools, NOT FEDERAL CONTROL! LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS CAN REACT MORE QUICKLY THAN FEDERAL BUREAUCRATS. LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS WILL RESPOND MORE QUICKLY TO LOCAL VOTERS WHO CAN DEMAND BETTER SCHOOLS AND BETTER EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES FOR THEIR KIDS!
As you get old(er), do you really want your kids to control everything you do? Of course not. But today’s uneducated kids will be tomorrow’s leaders. Kids must learn how to read, write, know math and science, learn civics and history including the good, bad and ugly of our history. If they don’t, they will make the same mistakes over and over again. Is that what you want for you, your kids and grandchildren? I didn’t think so.
LOCAL CONTROL MEANS LOCAL CONTROL. When it comes to education, ANY AMOUNT OF FEDERAL CONTROL MEANS LESS CONTROL FOR YOU. Now is a great time to remember what President Reagan said were the 9 most terrifying words you could ever hear…I am for the government and here to help. When it comes to who controls the type and quality of education or what is taught….NO THANK YOU!
By the way, when people talk about federal tax money, somehow they forget that the federal government HAS NO MONEY EXCEPT THE MONEY THEY TAKE FROM YOU IN TAXES. So it is NOT FEDERAL MONEY…IT IS YOUR MONEY. YOU SHOULD DECIDE HOW YOUR MONEY IS SPENT ON EDUCATION.
Liberal Randi Weingarten’s AFL-CIO teachers stayed home during COVID and refused to go back into the classroom. The well documented result was that our poorly educated kids fell even farther behind. Weingarten doesn’t care. Her only concern is about the teachers union and her power as their leader. She is truly pathetic and probably ‘learnt’ her facts in the public schools and from teachers she now fights to control.
LOCAL CONTROL, LOCAL CONTROL, LOCAL CONTROL is the ONLY WAY to properly educate kids. GET RIDE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. Without all the staff, pensions and buildings to support, MORE MONEY SHOULD COME TO LOCAL SCHOOLS…WHERE IT BELONGS.
Sometimes that’s not enough or at other times it could be to much. Either way it’s over thinking our ED department! We need better education not less@
Sometimes that’s not enough or at other times it could be to much. Either way it’s over thinking our ED department! We need better education not less!
Don’t let Chris near a Tesla