Thursday, October 15, 2026
Vol. VIII
Est. 2019

The Mind Shield

News · Opinion · Politics · Analysis

Cooper holds double digit lead over Whatley in North Carolina.

Cooper holds double digit lead over Whatley in North Carolina.
Former Gov. Roy Cooper (D). Photo: Nell Redmond / AP file

Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) holds a massive lead over former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley in a new poll released Tuesday.

A new WRAL/WSOC poll shows Cooper leading by 14 points among likely voters. 54% said they would likely vote for Cooper, while 40% said they’d vote for Whatley. About 5% were undecided, and 1% said they’d vote for another candidate.

A spokesperson for the Trump-endorsed Whatley’s campaign said he is focused on winning over undecided voters in the closing weeks of the campaign.

“Michael Whatley has been meeting with communities across the state, holding nearly 400 campaign events, meeting with communities from Murphy to Manteo as Roy Cooper hides in his basement,” Whatley spokesman DJ Griffin told WRAL in a written statement. “We are confident this race will continue to tighten, and Michael Whatley will win in November.”

Cooper and Whatley are competing for an open seat in North Carolina after incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis (R) announced he won’t be seeking re-election. Tillis has endorsed Whatley and said he doesn’t believe Trump’s endorsement is helping in the state.

“I don’t think it benefits him. I haven’t seen any poll where [Trump] is going to help us with unaffiliateds,” Tillis told NewsNation.

Further complicating things for Whatley, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the campaign arm of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, has withdrawn its ad spending in North Carolina to redirect support to other candidates in states like Kansas as the party tries to triage resources in what is expected to be a brutal midterm.

Early voting in North Carolina begins this week.

The Cook Political Report rates the North Carolina Senate race as “leans Democratic”