What the Cooper vs. Whatley Senate Race Could Mean

By Cash Michaels –

Former NC Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and former NC GOP Chairman Michael Whatley, both hope to fill the soon-to-be vacated US Senate seat currently held by Republican Thom Tillis.

Tillis publicly stated that he would not run for a third term just before he voted against President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Cooper, 68, made his candidacy official on X on July 28, 2025, saying, “I have thought on it and prayed about it, and I have decided: I am running to be the next US Senator from North Carolina.”

As his much-celebrated July 26, 2025 appearance at the annual NC Democratic Party Unity Dinner showed, the former two-term governor remains the most popular and most influential Democratic politician in the state.

With Eastern North Carolina roots and moderate politics, Cooper has proven to be a formidable politician over the years, with the ability to attract voters from both rural and urban areas of the state. Republican opponents have always tried to portray the former state representative and NC attorney general as a tool of the ultra-liberal left, but Cooper’s “down-home” ability to effectively communicate with different constituencies across the state has always been his magic touch.

But in over 30 years in North Carolina politics, including his two terms as governor that ended in 2024, Cooper has never lost a race. Looking at that track record, supporters hope that Cooper will be able to successfully do what he did at the NCDP Unity dinner—blast the Trump Administration for running up the national debt, cutting food stamp aid and health care for the poor, and giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires.

He’ll have to do it against a Republican opponent handpicked and endorsed by the powerful MAGA president. Michael Whatley, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and former chair of the NC Republican Party, formally announced his run for the seat on July 31.

Whatley, 57, joined the race with Pres. Trump’s blessing after Trump’s daughter-in-law, Wilmington native Lara Trump, decided she wanted to pursue a career in television and music instead. Trump’s endorsement of Whatley will be formidable for NC Democrats, and particularly Roy Cooper, to overcome. The MAGA president has shown exceptional electoral strength in North Carolina in both endorsing local candidates for office, and during his two runs for the White House.

To clear an easy path to being the NC Democratic Party’s Senate candidate, former North Carolina Congressman Wiley Nickel has dropped his bid for the seat and endorsed Cooper, announcing that he’ll run for Wake County district attorney instead.

Though North Carolina is one of 33 states holding senatorial elections in 2026, its national profile in the midterm elections is high. Putting a Democrat in the seat held by Tillis will help narrow, or even close, the 53-47 seat Republican advantage.

The nationwide importance of the race could make the Cooper vs. Whatley contest one of the most expensive in history, perhaps even topping 2024’s brutal Senate contest in Texas between Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Colin Allred.

As of October 31, 2024, according to Federal Election Commission records, Cruz and Allred between them raised an estimated $165 million. Given the national prominence of next year’s Cooper-Whatley contest, observers expect at least that much to be raised and spent in North Carolina next year.