A sign displayed by U.S. Senate Democrats at a Washington, DC press conference on Feb. 19, 2025. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
North Carolina Democrats held a press conference Tuesday to attack Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, portraying him as a threat to rural healthcare. They pointed to Whatley’s support for the so-called “one big beautiful bill” which state health officials say could cut nearly $50 billion in Medicaid funding in North Carolina over the next decade.
Nearly 680,000 North Carolinians have gained coverage since the expansion of Medicaid in 2023, but the passage of “one big beautiful bill,” a sweeping tax and spending package signed into law by President Trump earlier this summer, could put that coverage and the survival of some rural hospitals at risk.
Whatley has described the passage as a “huge win,” while Democrats are making it clear they plan to use that against him in the 2026 election campaign.
A spokesperson for the North Carolina Republican Party, Matt Mercer, pushed back Wednesday on the Democrats’ claims, saying in a statement that the federal tax and spending bill would actually help working families.
Mercer said that Democrats “have shown they don’t care about working families and are the party of elitists who despise hard-working Americans, especially those in rural North Carolina. That’s why they’ve shed hundreds of thousands of voters across our state and will soon be relegated to third place on the voter rolls.”
Tuesday’s virtual event featured Ahoskie Mayor Weyling White and a patient from Blue Ridge Regional Hospital, who spoke about how the changes could impact their communities, and framed Whatley, a longtime Republican strategist, as backing policies that would hurt local communities and put lives at risk across the state.
“It feels like we took three steps forward, and now we’re taking five steps back,” said White. “With Medicaid expansion, families had more opportunity to get ahead, and it’s devastating to watch that unravel.”
Blue Ridge Regional Hospital, where Lea Charlton is a patient, is one of five facilities state officials say are at risk of closing. Losing it, Charlton said, would mean longer ambulance rides and delays in treatment. “If my husband and I have to drive an hour during an emergency, it could cost us our lives, and I am not kidding about that,” she said. “These decisions have real consequences for families.”
Former Governor Roy Cooper (pictured left) will face former RNC chair Michael Whatley (right) in the 2026 U.S. Senate race. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)For many rural communities, hospitals are often the biggest employers and sometimes the only option for emergency care.
White, who is also a healthcare professional, said Whatley is choosing the wealthy instead of protecting access to healthcare for his own community.
Whatley, who recently left his role as RNC chair, announced his run for the U.S. Senate last month. His announcement came after former Governor Roy Cooper said he was running for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. The race is widely expected to be one of the most expensive of the 2026 midterms.
Democrats’ early focus on health care reveals their intent to make the issue central to the Senate race. Whatley, who has never held elected office, will have to defend his support for Trump’s budget cuts and his record as party chair.
An August 1 poll by Emerson College found that many North Carolinians are still unfamiliar with Whatley, with 36% responding that they “have never heard of this person.” Another 30% said they had no opinion or were unsure how they felt about him. That presents an opening for Democrats to define him as a Washington insider tied to unpopular policies.
Earlier this month, Democrats sought to cast Whatley as an extremist by highlighting his ties to former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who lost his gubernatorial bid last year after a series of inflammatory remarks.
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