Tongue-in-cheek

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A new poll out Wednesday offers one of the first glimpses into how North Carolinians feel about the state's new abortion ban ahead of its July 1 implementation.

The national debate around abortion — ushered in mainly through the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade — came to North Carolina last month as the Republican-controlled legislature passed a 12-week abortion ban. The bill was originally vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, but the General Assembly's Republican supermajority overrode the veto.

The law goes into effect in two-and-a-half weeks, leaving many to question how its implementation will impact North Carolinians ahead of a contentious election season.

Several polls across North Carolina have sought to answer this question, such as recent findings from Meredith College and High Point University. In the Meredith Poll in February, more than a third of respondents wanted to restrict abortion access beyond what was in place at the time, largely Republicans. The High Point University poll in June asked respondents to rate how important certain issues were for the next governor to address. Almost 75% of respondents said abortion was very or somewhat important.

Adding to the conversation on North Carolinian's abortion attitudes, a new poll from Elon University gauged North Carolina voters' support of or opposition to the new ban.

The poll also included a wide range of questions for voters to weigh in on sports betting and candidates in the 2024 elections.

Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence are among the top contenders to take on President Joe Biden. In the race for governor, Republicans Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, State Treasurer Dale Folwell and Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein are all running.

The News & Observer spoke with Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll, about the poll's findings. The poll includes the responses of 1,268 respondents, who were all registered voters. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

North Carolinians' view on abortion ban

Q: What are the overall trends you've noticed with the topic of abortion in North Carolina?

Husser:We found 45% opposing — either strongly or somewhat — and 36% supporting strongly or somewhat. So that's about 10% more people in opposition to the change than support … so there was not overwhelming support for this abortion change, but, in fact, there were more people opposed to it than supporting it.

But I'm not sure opposition is so high that it becomes "the" issue, now that it's already passed. So for a candidate to primarily campaign on that, they need to present an argument that by electing them to office … they could undo this change. That seems pretty unrealistic that Democrats would get both majorities in both chambers as well as the governor's mansion and be able to undo it.

Q: So for Republicans, would you say that campaigning on abortion is something that would help or hurt them?

Husser:Depends on the district at the General Assembly level. Some districts are conservative enough that the candidate should campaign on it, even though statewide it may not have support, their district may be drawn in such a way that there's overwhelming support for additional restrictions. Statewide though, is where it's harder, particularly in North Carolina. Right now, I'd say we're red-tinted purple, but migration to the state likely means that we're going to become more solidly purple as time goes on.

Trump, Robinson lead in 2024 Republican primary

Q: Who is leading the pack for the Republican presidential nomination?

Husser: In the Republican campaign for president, Trump had the highest levels of favorability among Republican voters, followed by DeSantis … (Trump) still has deep support within the Republican Party within North Carolina. Of course, he also has plenty of opposition, both within the party but statewide with Democrats and unaffiliated voters included. His numbers were 45% favorable, 52% unfavorable. However, among Republicans he was 80% favorable.

In some ways, Pence looks like a close third to DeSantis … looking at Republican voters only is a decent way to look at the future Super Tuesday election. So Pence has 55% favorable, but 36% unfavorable, and not that many unfamiliar with him. DeSantis, on the other hand, has 63% favorable and 21% unfavorable, so he's got a 42 point net positive. Pence only has a 19 point net positive.

Q: A lot of the news around Trump this week is about his indictment. Looking at this polling data, do you anticipate the indictment having any impact?

Husser:We've seen over and over again, pretty serious allegations being leveled against President Trump and him being able to still retain support, whether that's early on in the 2016 campaign with the "Access Hollywood" tapes or this more recent indictment. It does seem from national polls that he's able to maintain his numbers so far.

However, I think that has a possibility to change if there are criminal charges that look like they may stick and that he could potentially be convicted of a crime that would have a significant prison sentence. That would change things. But I think there's still many supporters that will see these charges as politically motivated and stick with him regardless.

Q: What have you noticed when it comes to North Carolina's gubernatorial candidates?

Husser:Mark Robinson had the highest levels of familiarity and highest levels of favorability within the Republican Party. So that sort of suggests that Robinson is the front-runner of the gubernatorial race. We have statewide Robinson not favorable at 18%, among Republicans it's only 4% not favorable. So most of Robinson's unfavorable numbers are coming from Democrats. Overall, Robinson is a figure that engenders deep feelings, whether that's positive feelings or negative feelings.

Folwell and Walker both have significant name recognition issues right now, and they don't have a tremendous amount of time to close that name recognition gap … Robinson is in a more prominent position. As a sitting lieutenant governor, lieutenant governors generally command more attention than a state treasurer of a former member of Congress.

…Stein's numbers weren't as great as I thought they'd be. I thought he would have higher levels of name recognition. But that may be because I follow politics all the time.

High support for sports betting in NC

Q: Could you outline some of the general trends you saw with questions related to sports betting?

Husser:We found that a pretty solid majority of North Carolina voters support sports betting legalization, almost a two to one ratio: 66% to 34%. I included different concerns that had been raised in prior discussions around sports betting. One was whether it would create a financial burden for poor people, whether it would reduce illegal bookmaking and would it generate useful tax revenues and would it be endorsing something that's morally wrong. Generally, I found that those considerations mapped on with people's overall support.

Q: Are there any other issues you've seen through polling that have comparable support to sports betting?

Husser:We found similar high levels of support for medical marijuana, which is another issue that has come up in the General Assembly, but it's never quite made it through.

©2023 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.Com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Jason Sudeikis Jokes That Owen Wilson Once Told Him He'd Be Curious To See What He Looked Like If He "Took Care" Of Himself

Jason Sudeikis recently recalled a playful conversation he had with Owen Wilson while they were on the set of Hall Pass.

During production on the 2011 comedy, which also starred Steve Merchant, JB Smoove and Larry Joe Campbell, the actors were filming a scene in a sports bar that involved them eating wings and talking.

"It was my first time being in a big studio movie, like lead, Owen and I are on the poster type thing," Sudeikis said during an appearance on Hot Ones. "We're going around, and we shoot like all people around the thing. You know, you have to keep moving the camera if you have the time and money, which they usually do for studio movies."

He continues, "There were hot wings — they weren't this hot," he joked as he appeared to be visibly struggling with the wing he'd just eaten on the YouTube series. "So we're eating these wings, and I'm eating them while the camera is on Owen."

The Ted Lasso star and co-creator explained that since it was his first major feature, he hadn't developed a method for fake eating onscreen, since actors are told not to actually eat the prop food on camera.

After filming the scene, Wilson approached the We're the Millers star and said he wondered what the actor would look like if he watched what he ate and exercised.

"At some point, I'm eating them, and he's just like, 'Gosh, so you'll just put anything in your body, huh?' I'm like, 'Oh, yeah,'" Sudeikis said, laughing. "He goes, 'I'd be so curious what you look like if you actually worked out and took care of yourself.'"

Wilson Unveils Bold Edition Black And White Collection

Racquets and bags with an attention-grabbing cosmetic

It's not always the most colorful racquets that create the biggest stir. Frames dressed in nothing but black or white have always cut a striking pose. Wilson wants to see if combining the two in a unique pattern is even more eye-catching.

On the heels of its successful Camo campaign, Wilson has rolled out its new Bold Edition Collection racquets and bags with an audacious, zebra-like cosmetic.

There are five frames available in the capsule from the brand's core franchises: Pro Staff 97L ($249), Blade 98S ($229), Ultra 100L ($199) and Ultra 26 ($89). The Burn 100LS is also part of the collection, but will not be available in the U.S. The frames are all either light or spin models, as well as one junior racquet, which should make them enticing to a younger audience.

In addition, two bags—the Bold Edition Super Tour Racquet Bag ($104) and Super Tour Backpack ($84) complement the racquets.

The Wilson Bold Edition Collection is available at wilson.Com.

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