Hagan continues to hold large lead

Kay Hagan 49
Elizabeth Dole 40
Christopher Cole 5

Kay Hagan is continuing to hold a commanding lead in her effort to unseat Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole.

In a state like North Carolina with a large Democratic registration advantage, a Republican candidate has to peel off a lot of voters from the other party to win statewide. But Elizabeth Dole is barely winning more of the Democratic vote- 12%- than Kay Hagan is taking of the Republican vote- 9%. Add in a 44-33 lead for Hagan with independents and it's the recipe for a near double digit lead for the Democratic challenger.

Hagan is also making strong in roads in rural North Carolina- where John McCain has a 16 point lead over Barack Obama, Dole has just a five point advantage over Hagan. Our polling, both public and private, has also found that Hagan is playing extremely well with the state's quickly expanding group of suburban voters. She may well be the standard bearer of the profile of candidate who's going to be successful statewide in 21st century North Carolina.

Hagan continues to hold Dole to a not good enough ten point advantage with white voters, is winning almost every corner of the state, and has a 59-31 lead with respondents most concerned about the economy.

Full results here