(The Center Square) – Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley, amid little surprise, unofficially advanced Tuesday on primary Election Day into a showdown on Nov. 3 for a seat from North Carolina in the U.S. Senate.
Each were declared winners moments after polls closed.
Cooper, former two-term governor from Raleigh, was the overwhelming choice (92%) in a field with Concord’s Justin Dues (2.7%), Wilmington’s Marcus William (2.5%), Jacksonville’s Daryl Farrow (1.2%), High Point’s Orrick Quick (0.9%) and Rocky Point’s Robert Colon (0.8%).
Whatley, former chairman of the Republican National Committee from Gastonia, earned 64.6% in early returns in charging past Waxhaw’s Don Brown (15.6%), Garner’s Thomas Johnson (5.7%), Cary’s Michele Morrow (5.6%), Smithfield’s Elizabeth Temple (3.8%), Durham’s Richard Dansie (2.4%) and the already disqualified Margot Dupre (2.4%) listed from Charlotte but later found to be more accurately from Florida.
Canvassing to make results official is Friday of next week. Libertarian Shannon Bray of Angier is the third candidate on the ballot Nov. 3.
“Republicans are united,” Whatley wrote on social media. “Now the real fight begins. This November, North Carolina voters will have a choice: safer communities, secure borders, more jobs and lower costs or Roy Cooper’s failed record.”
The race to succeed two-term Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has drawn the spotlight nationally since his decision last year to not seek reelection. Spending is projected to set a Senate campaign record at or above $1 billion.
The chamber has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents caucusing but not always voting with the minority party on key issues such as a government shutdown. Democrats believe this Republican seat as well as that of Maine’s Susan Collins, Ohio’s Jon Husted and Alaska’s Dan Sullivan are ripe for flipping.
Republicans believe the seat can be held in addition to flipping the Democratic seats of Georgia’s Jon Ossof, Michigan’s Gary Peters (not seeking reelection), and New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen (not seeking reelection).
Senate seats held by Iowa Republican Joni Ernst (not seeking reelection) and Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith (not seeking reelection) are considered also in the mix for change of party.
“There’s no doubt,” Cooper wrote on social media. “We’ve got our work cut out for us. But North Carolinians have always given me hope and that’s what’s going to get us across the finish line.”
Cooper’s quest is different than most in the other states, however, because he’s popular and won not only the two terms as governor but four four-year stints as attorney general. He has pinned his campaign strategy on affordable costs, health care, and what he describes as “chaos in Washington.”
Whatley, also former chairman of the state’s party, is endorsed and fully aligned with the gentleman he helped win election two years ago, second-term Republican President Donald Trump. That’s an agenda slogan of “America First,” meaning priority on policies that prioritize the interests of the United States when it comes to economy and trade, foreign policy, border security and a rejection of limited decision-making power within international agreements, or sovereignty.
Campaigns for both have punched the other frequently on hurricane recovery responsibility. No hit, however, is likely to top the one delivered by state Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, unlocking insight into 3,500 people released from prison as part of Cooper’s litigation settlement with the NAACP and ACLU in 2021.
In addition to 16% of the prison population – more than 5,400 inmates – approved for release by the Cooper administration just before the settlement, those in the 3,500 deal were to be inmates who had not committed crimes against other people; were pregnant; were scheduled to be released in 2021; or were planned to grant early release to those on track for parole.
Instead, say published reports, at least 51 had life sentences. Cooper’s campaign has responded by advocating his “tough on crime” leadership as a prosecutor; and said tying him to Decarlos Brown Jr. – suspect in stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska – through the settlement is “a lie.”
