Too Early To Crown a Presidential Front-Runner In NC

Mitt Romney made it official Friday--he won't run for the presidency in 2016.

Nationally, Romney was a high-flyer in the polls of Republican contenders. But Martin Kifer, director of surveys and a political scientist at High Point University, says those polling numbers may have reflected name recognition more than anything else.

In North Carolina, Romney edged out President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, winning the state by fewer than 100,000 votes. Now that Romney's out, Kifer says it may take a while to find the front-runner in North Carolina.

“It's a little bit too early to sing praises about any particular Republican candidate. With Democrats it's difficult to say too – nobody has emerged who seems like a plausible contender right now against Hilary Clinton.”

Clinton has not yet announced that she is running but is widely expected to do so.

Kifer says with an open presidential seat along with races for governor and U.S. Senate, North Carolina will likely again be a key player in national politics in 2016.

Republicans won big here in 2014. Kifer expects 2016 to play out like a typical presidential year election with a lot of close top-of-the-ticket races. But at the district level, he's not expecting much turnover.

"I don't expect much to change in the U.S. House races or the Senate and House races here in North Carolina simply because the way the districts are drawn," he says. "I don't see those things moving very decisively."