(The Center Square) – Two primaries exist for the hotly contested U.S. Senate seat from North Carolina.
Reality is only one of 36 possible matchups will emerge less than three weeks from now.
Raleigh’s Roy Cooper and Gastonia’s Michael Whatley remain forecast to speed through primaries for Democrats and Republicans, respectively. Absentee voting started with mailed ballots Jan. 12, early in-person voting tips off Thursday, and March 3 is the primary Election Day with six Democrats, six Republicans, and a seventh Republican already ruled ineligible to win by primary.
Cooper has pinned his campaign strategy on affordable costs, health care, and what he describes as “chaos in Washington.” The Democrat was twice elected governor and four times attorney general.
Whatley, former chairman of the Republican National Committee and 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.”
Seizing the moment by his primary rivals hasn’t happened. Whatley, on the other hand, enjoined it as a key campaign issue adding to a narrative of Cooper being “soft on crime.” His Republican primary rivals have to get past the president’s endorsed candidate before getting to the Democrats.
Campaign advertising by the two, albeit somewhat in an infancy ahead of Nov. 3, is focused only on each other. The other candidates in their primaries are, arguably, afterthoughts before the process even began.
Cooper must clear a primary with Wilmington’s Marcus Williams, Jacksonville’s Daryl Farrow, Concord’s Justin Dues, Rocky Point’s Robert Colon and High Point’s Orrick Quick. Whatley’s competition on the ballot is Waxhaw’s Don Brown, Cary’s Michele Morrow, Garner’s Thomas Johnson, Durham’s Richard Dansie, Charlotte’s Margot Dupre and Smithfield’s Elizabeth Temple.
Dupre has already been ruled unable to win by the State Board of Elections, that if victorious in the primary it would be vacated. Valid voter registration is cited following a complaint brought showing her address matched a UPS store in Charlotte, and her testimony of having residence in Florida.
The campaign finance reporting deadline for calendar year 2025 was Jan. 31, and Cooper ($12.3 million) and Whatley ($3.7 million) are spending little to none specifically for the primaries. And with good reason.
Williams among Democrats did not have cash on hand, according to the filings. Among Republicans, Brown ($32,000), Morrow ($1,600), Johnson ($1,600) and Dansie ($630) were at least on the board.
There was no listing for Democrats Farrow, Dues, Colon or Quick, or Republicans Temple and Dupre.
If and when Cooper and Whatley advance on March 3, they’ll be joined on the ballot in November by Libertarian Shannon Bray of Angier.
