WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko – The victorty in North Carolina could add 15 electoral votes to the Trump camp, Zogby said.
"On North Carolina lead [in early exit polls], obviously, we have to see if African Americans turn out this evening in North Carolina. But at least for now, it's not a good sign for Hillary Clinton, because there are 15 electoral votes in this state, it's significant. Many pundits were automatically suggesting that Clinton would win North Carolina. If these numbers hold, it means first, that Donald Trump has an extra 15 electoral votes, and second, that young African-American vote may be is not materializing for Democrats," Zogby said.
The early exit polls also showed Trump's lead in Ohio, but it is consistent with the pre-election polls.
The pollster added that Donald Trump may well win surprisingly in a state where he was not expected to lead.
"Let's look at Michigan and Pennsylvania. Right now, the early exit polls have Clinton leading in Pennsylvania, but I doubt," Zogby said.
The state’s 9.5-million population is diverse and fast growing. It consists of 65.3 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 21.5 percent of African Americans and 8.4 percent of Latino Americans.
Since 1968, they have been supporting Republican candidates until in 2008 Democrat Barack Obama reversed the trend beating John McCain by 0.3 percent. However, in 2012, Obama’s Republican rival Mitt Romney won with a margin of some 2 percent.
According to the Real Clear Politics average of national polls, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was leading against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in North Carolina ahead of the vote by 0.8 percent (46.5 percent versus 45.7 percent). In Presidential primary elections in North Carolina Trump gathered 458,151 votes (40,2 percent of the Republican ballots, won the primaries) while Clinton received 616,383 votes (54.6 percent of the Democratic ballots).
