Breaking down the ballot: U.S. Senate
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Photos: Al Drago/Getty Images (Cooper) and Cornell Watson/Bloomberg (Whatley) via Getty Images
A staunch Trump ally and one of North Carolina's most recognizable Democrats are battling for the state's open U.S. Senate seat in a must-watch race nationally.
Why it matters: Currently held by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, this seat could be crucial to determining whether Republicans maintain control of the Senate or the chamber flips to Democrats.
State of play: The showdown is between former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper from Raleigh and Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chair from Gastonia, who Trump handpicked to run.
- Whatley, 57, has never run for office himself but has led many other Republicans to victory. Now, as a candidate, he's trailing in the polls, struggling with name recognition. Fifteen percent of voters polled said they heard nothing at all about Whatley.
- Cooper, 69, is more widely known. Only 4% of those polled had heard nothing at all about Cooper. He was more in the public eye than a typical governor, holding regular news conferences at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and issuing executive orders that affected nearly everyone's daily routine. That history has given Whatley ammo with voters who were opposed to the COVID stay-at-home orders.
Zoom in: This election is partly a test of Trump's appeal in North Carolina, with the president even telling supporters, "Pretend I'm on the ballot," while campaigning for Whatley at a recent rally in Gastonia. Trump's approval rating has fallen to 31% among North Carolinians surveyed by Elon, though the state voted for Trump in all three of his campaigns.
- The race has centered largely on the economy and public safety.
- Whatley has framed Cooper as the soft-on-crime candidate, repeatedly and inaccurately claiming that Cooper let the suspect in the 2025 Charlotte light rail stabbing out of prison. (Decarlos Brown served his full sentence and was not released early, according to corrections officials.) Whatley says he supports Trump's mass deportations.
- Meanwhile, Cooper is running the "Make Stuff Cost Less" campaign, focused on affordability. Cooper's proposals include ending tariffs that drive up costs for farmers, ensuring data centers "pay the full cost of all the power they use" and cutting "red tape" around housing construction.
Catch up quick: The winner of this race will succeed Sen. Tillis, who announced he would not seek reelection soon after Trump threatened to endorse a Republican challenger after Tillis opposed the "big, beautiful bill" for its Medicaid cuts.
- Tillis has been one of North Carolina's two Republican senators since 2015.
- North Carolina's other senator is Ted Budd, whose current term runs through 2029.
Zoom out: Other candidates on the ballot are Green Party candidate Michael Dublin and Libertarian Shannon Bray.
