Donald Trump, an American businessman and Republican presidential candidate, has drawn national attention for his comments about Mexican immigrants during a presidential announcement speech, and his controversial comments are paying off in North Carolina.

In his presidential announcement speech Trump said: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people.”

Since then, multiple companies across the nation have canceled contracts with Trump’s companies. One of the more notable examples includes NBC dropping the broadcast of this year’s Miss USA pageant.

Despite the bad news for Trump’s businesses, he’s seeing some success in politics, at least in North Carolina.

A poll released this week by Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling shows Trump leading the race for the Republican presidential nomination by 4 percent over former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. The poll showed Trump receiving 16 percent of the state’s Republican vote, Bush and Walker tied at 12 percent and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in third with 11 percent.

Public Policy Polling found Trump’s support came mostly from men. A total of 61 percent of Republican men viewed Trump favorably, while 49 percent of women viewed him favorably. However, only 20 percent of men said they’d like to see Trump as the Republican nominee. A total of 11 percent of women supported Trump as the nominee.

Just one month ago, when fewer candidates had declared a run for president, Bush led with 19 percent of the Republican vote.

Politician Hillary Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate, still leads her race by a large margin, according to the latest poll. Clinton sits at 55 percent, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had 20 percent and Former U.S. Senator Jim Webb, D-Va., sat in third with 7 percent.

Public Policy Polling surveyed 529 total registered voters, with 288 being Republicans and 286 being Democrats, as a part of the poll.

McCrory campaign, PPP clash again 

In other polling news, Gov. Pat McCrory’s campaign isn’t happy about Public Policy Polling’s work.

Last month, the campaign claimed to have launched an organization called Polling of Republicans for Republicans by Republicans. When Public Policy Polling this week released an assessment of McCrory’s approval ratings, the campaign fired back.

The PPP poll found that 33 percent of voters approve of the job McCrory is doing, and 48 percent disapprove. In a summary of the poll, the group pointed out McCrory’s approval ratings were higher in February — 40 approval and 44 percent disapproval.

It further found Attorney General Roy Cooper leading McCrory in a race for governor by a slim margin.

The McCrory campaign’s satirical results found an 100 percent approval rating for the governor, and a 0 percent approval rating for Cooper.

“Unlike PPP polling, RRR could not find anyone voting for Roy Cooper,” an announcement of the satirical results stated. “But to make the poll fairer, we added in 10 independents and 100 Democrats to the sample, all of whom voted for Pat McCrory as well.”

For further information about the McCrory campaign’s poll, the announcement recommended visiting www.PPPisboguspolling.com or calling 1-WHA–TAJ-OKE.

Adams praises removal of Confederate flag

U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, D-12, was the only one of Rowan’s congressional representatives this week to publicly announce her support for the removal of a Confederate flag on South Carolina’s capitol grounds.

Shortly after the South Carolina legislature passed a measure to remove the flag, Adams called the flag a symbol of hatred and oppression and praised the legislature’s actions.

“The recent tragedy in South Carolina is a horrific reminder of the work we have to do in order to stomp out hatred and bigotry in our country,” Adams said in a news release. “It is past time we abandon the usage of this offensive vestige of the past and I am proud the South Carolina Legislature moved to do what is right.”

At the end of her statement, Adams also urged Gov. Pat McCrory to discontinue the issuance of license plates containing the Confederate battle flag. Last month, McCrory called for the legislature to act and discontinue the license plates, but neither North Carolina legislators nor McCrory have mentioned the issue since.

Contact reporter Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4246.