Trump and Whatley double down on the administration's record in North Carolina Senate contest
GASTONIA, North Carolina (AP) — President Donald Trump tested his midterm campaign appeal Wednesday in North Carolina as he tries to help his handpicked Republican Senate hopeful and former national party chairman Michael Whatley shore up his campaign against Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper.
The president and Whatley embraced each other — and offered withering attacks on Cooper — in Trump's first campaign rally since his unusual midterm convention in Dallas. The president, despite voter frustrations over the Iran war and his economic leadership, has promised dozens more trips in the coming weeks.
“In this election, I’m asking you to pretend I’m on the ballot just one more time,” Trump said.
He also defended his economic leadership, acknowledging that gas prices are “a little higher” because of his war in Iran but argued that “it's a very inexpensive price to pay for what we've done.” Stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, he said, would be worth the cost “even if it was a lot more."
Trump’s involvement in midterm races creates a balancing act for Republicans like Whatley, who must maximize support from the president’s core supporters without alienating other voters who’ve soured on the administration amid inflation and the Iran war.
Whatley showed no concerns about that on Wednesday, regardless of the president's lagging popularity.
“I am honored that we are going to have the greatest president of our lifetime, Donald J. Trump, here in Gaston County tonight,” Whatley said ahead of Trump's arrival at the rally.
Whatley was the president’s pick for the Senate race and, before that, Trump’s pick to lead the Republican National Committee. Republicans viewed him as a strong recruit to hold the seat being left open by Sen. Thom Tillis, who decided to retire after clashing with the president last year. But Whatley, who is making his first bid for public office, has trailed Cooper in fundraising and polling over the summer showed Cooper with at least a slight lead.
Attorney General Todd Blanche also spoke at the rally, underscoring the White House’s priority of helping Whatley. It’s the latest example of how Trump’s top law enforcement officer has broken with tradition by participating in partisan campaigning.
Democrats have not won a Senate contest in the state since 2008, and Trump carried North Carolina in all three of his presidential campaigns, but the seat is critical to Democrats’ effort to flip control of the Senate. Cooper was perhaps Democrats’ best recruit this cycle, having never lost a statewide race in North Carolina over four terms as attorney general and two terms as governor, winning both in the same elections in which Trump carried North Carolina.
The president mocked Democrats' rhetoric about affordability, saying they “made up” the word. Whatley nodded at voters' economic angst but blamed Democrats for the problem.
“When it comes to our economy, and we talk about affordability, we talk about high prices, we talk about the ditch that Roy Cooper and Joe Biden put America in with the economy,” Whatley said.
Both Republicans unloaded on Cooper's tenure as governor, with Trump recycling an inaccurate claim to blame Cooper for a grisly North Carolina murder and accusing him of doing nothing to help the state after Hurricane Helene inflicted widespread damage in 2024.
“You’ve got to remember this, two things, crime and Helene,” Trump said.
As he has before, Trump suggested falsely that Cooper was responsible for the 2025 stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old who fled Ukraine. The man charged with the crime, Decarlos Brown Jr., had served time in prison and been committed for schizophrenia. But contrary to Trump’s claim that “he was released by Cooper,” Brown was not freed early under any Cooper policy.
The president also recycled his attacks that Cooper “did nothing” after Helene. Cooper has long rejected that accusation, pointing to the work state and local governments did with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Trump has since attempted to gut.
When Trump wasn't attacking Cooper, he cast the midterms as a dire national choice if Republicans lose their control on Capitol Hill.
“If we lose, you’re going to lose your border, you’re going to lose your tax cuts, you’re going to lose your wealth,” he said, “and our country is going to go through hell.”
Republican pollster Paul Shumaker, who worked on Tillis’s and North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd’s campaigns, said Trump will energize Republicans who may not be as excited about the campaign as Democrats are. But he noted that registered Democrats and Republicans in North Carolina are split about evenly, while independent voters outnumber both. That cohort of more than 3.5 million voters, he said, is more concerned about the economy, an issue where Trump is weaker than he was in 2024, than with crime or immigration, issues where North Carolina Republicans might still have an advantage over Democrats.
“They see the White House more focused on everything but the economy,” Shumaker said. “So that narrative has to change to give them a path here in North Carolina.”
Whatley has made some efforts to broaden his appeal.
During a brief speech at the Dallas convention, Whatley promoted Republicans healthcare policies and praised Trump’s agenda, especially the tax cuts included in his “big beautiful bill” last year. But instead of lavishing praise on the president himself, he spent most of his time unloading on Cooper.
Cooper’s campaign pushed back against Whatley’s criticisms and noted that the Republican has faced scrutiny for recently having a convicted sex offender offer the opening prayer at one of his campaign events.
Whatley, meanwhile, is leaning heavily on Trump and national Republican donors to reach voters on television and online. According to data from AdImpact, which tracks campaign advertising, total Republican spending on the contest has topped $50 million, while Democrats have spent almost $35.2 million, with Trump's MAGA Inc. and other conservative PACs accounting for the overall Republican advantage.
Cooper had no public events Wednesday, but the state Democratic Party held a morning news conference to criticize Trump, Whatley and inflation. Speakers noted the Republican nominee's oil and gas investments as the energy sector amasses profits while the Iran war drives up fuel costs. Whatley's personal financial disclosures to the Senate shows that he holds stock in ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and other energy firms. A former energy lobbyist, Whatley backs Trump's actions in Iran.
“Why would Whatley back a war that is driving up prices for North Carolina families at a time when it’s already too hard for us to get by?” asked state Sen. Woodson Bradley, D-Charlotte. “He’s already shown us everything we need to know.”
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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Price reported from Washington.
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