The two major party candidates for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat in November both held campaign events focused on affordability in the Triangle Thursday afternoon. The outcome of the contest could decide which party will control the narrowly divided U.S. Senate during the next Congress.
The two events couldn’t have been much more different, and neither could the candidates’ messages. The Democratic candidate, former Gov. Roy Cooper, said actions by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans — especially tariffs and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — are to blame for the increasing cost of living.
But Republican candidate and former RNC chair Michael Whatley argued that Trump and congressional Republicans are working to bring the cost of living down, particularly through the tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Cooper holds double-digit lead over Whatley in latest US Senate poll in NC
Cooper and Whatley will face off on Nov. 3 in a race that has already seen both candidates raise millions and will likely be among the most expensive in U.S. history given its stakes for congressional control.
Cooper vows to ‘stand up to the billionaires’ at Durham rally
Cooper’s remarks to a crowd of a couple hundred supporters at Durham’s American Tobacco Campus centered on one slogan, which he and other speakers repeated several times: “Make stuff cost less.”
Cooper brought forward North Carolina residents who say rising costs have left them struggling to afford groceries and health care in the sixth stop on his affordability campaign tour, which began in Raleigh just over a month ago.
Throughout the tour, Cooper has released agendas for lowering food and grocery, health care and utility costs, with plans to do the same for housing and child care in the coming weeks. Thursday night’s rally did not go into specific policies, but focused broadly on the toll of rising costs on North Carolinians, and blaming his opponent, Whatley, for his role supporting the Trump administration’s economic plans.
Former Gov. Roy Cooper told a crowd of a couple hundred supporters at an Apr. 9, 2026, rally in Durham that he will stand up to insurance companies and oppose the Trump administration’s tariffs if elected to the U.S. Senate. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)Cooper criticized Whatley for “cheering on the policies that made it all cost more,” including cuts to Medicaid and subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. “While your costs are going up, Michael Whatley says prices are down,” Cooper told supporters.
If elected to the U.S. Senate, Cooper said he would work to hold insurance companies accountable for hidden fees and claim denials, vote to protect Medicaid and Medicare, and oppose President Donald Trump’s “chaotic tariffs.”
“We will stand up to the billionaires and the D.C. insiders who are getting all the breaks,” he said.
For the first time on the campaign trail this year, Cooper was joined by his successor Gov. Josh Stein and state Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls, who is also running in November to keep her seat on North Carolina’s highest court.
Stein attacked Whatley as an “out-of-touch D.C. insider and big oil lobbyist” and told the crowd Cooper will be a “strong independent voice” in the Senate. “I have known and worked with Roy for decades. He is a good man and a good friend.”
Earls called on Durham voters to turn out in large numbers in November, crediting the city’s residents with helping to elect Barack Obama as president in 2008, putting Cooper in the governor’s mansion in 2016, and electing her to the state Supreme Court in 2018.
“As governor, he showed tremendous courage to keep fighting for Medicaid expansion, to keep fighting for adequate funding for our public schools,” Earls said.
Whatley touts tax cuts and job creation at Cary roundtable
Meanwhile, at another event a few miles away in Cary Thursday afternoon, Whatley spoke to reporters after a closed-door business roundtable at the N.C. Chamber of Commerce.
Whatley said he sees tax cuts as the key to job creation and a strong economy.
“The real conversation that we’re having today is how do we create more jobs, how do you create better jobs, how do we make sure people are going to take home more money, and how do we make sure that people are going to keep more money that they could use for their households in North Carolina?” Whatley said.
North Carolina’s Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, right. told reporters that tax cuts are key to boosting the economy. He spoke to reporters on April 9, 2026 with U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. (Photo: Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline.)The former Republican Party chair said a key difference between him and Cooper is their position on tax cuts.
“The fact is he’s never seen a dollar he didn’t want to tax and spend,” Whatley said. “I’ve never seen a tax that I didn’t want to cut.”
Cooper opposed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the tax cuts it included, Whatley said, while Whatley supported the proposal. Cooper criticized the legislation for endangering Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, NC Newsline reported.
The man Whatley is seeking to replace, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, also opposed the measure due to its cuts to North Carolina’s Medicaid program. He was one of just three Republicans who voted against it. Tillis announced he would not seek reelection shortly after openly criticizing the measure.
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) attended the business roundtable to support Whatley and also spoke afterward to reporters.
“The clear answer to affordability is having more senators like Michael Whatley in the United States Senate,” Scott said.
Opinion polls have found increasing pessimism about the economy as the war with Iran has sent gas prices soaring. A CNN poll released April 1 reported 69% of respondents disapproved of the way President Donald Trump is handling the economy.
“Obviously, gas prices are extremely important on a day-to-day basis across the economy,” Whatley said. “And so I’m very glad that the President has unleashed American energy and that we’re actually producing more right now in America than anywhere else in the world, and more than we have historically, because otherwise the shocks would have been very significant.”
The United States is a net exporter of oil. Even still, gas prices are rising because prices are set on a global market, ABC News reported.
Whatley also sidestepped a question about appointing a convicted sex offender to a position in party leadership.
The Asheville Watchdog reported that Harvey Lee West Jr. was a 28-year-old police officer in the coastal town of Washington, N.C., in 1999 when he was charged with the statutory rape of three girls. Two were 14 and the other 16.
Heading into midterms, NCGOP faces mounting backlash from its conservative base
West pled down to charges of indecent liberties with a child and spent six years in prison, the Outer Banks Insider reported. According to a 2012 Associated Press report, West said in an interview that he was innocent, but pled guilty to avoid risking decades in prison.
Conservative activists told NC Newsline last week the controversy could cost Whatley Republican support.
On Thursday, Whatley dodged a question about whether it was appropriate to appoint West to a party post, given his criminal history.
“Probably the better question would be, ‘Why did Roy Cooper release thousands of hardened criminals from prison?’” Whatley said.
Republicans have claimed that Cooper released dangerous criminals as part of the 2021 COVID prison settlement. Civil rights groups sued Cooper to win the release of incarcerated people who were at heightened risk. A Wake County judge ruled in favor of the incarcerated people.
However, of the 51 people serving life sentences who were released, state officials told the Charlotte Observer all were eligible for parole before the settlement.
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