Catawba / YouGov: Cooper STILL up over Whatley by 14

Boy, this is looking like deja vu all over again.  Back in April, the Catawba /YouGov poll had Democrat Roy Cooper over Republican Mike Whatley by 48 percent  to 34 percent. Here in early June, the same poll is showing the same result. 

Sources out of Washington are showing me analyses by GOP stalwarts there indicating a continued GOP post-November hold on the Senate majority– despite the Democrats flipping the North Carolina Senate seat. 

All indications are that the GOPe is writing off the Whatley campaign. And why not?  Since July, there has not been a single poll showing a Whatiey lead over Cooper.  NOT ONE. 

There are already plenty of observers comparing Whatley 2026 to the Robinson disaster of 2024.  Josh Stein won the 2024 race by 14 points — the same lead Cooper appears to have right now in June.

Though, from May 2023 to May 2024, there were actually FIVE polls that gave Robinson a lead over Stein. 

The analysis accompanying this latest poll appears to indicate a desire to blame the Whatley 2026 fiasco squarely on Trump and his popularity ratings.  The 2024 race and the 2026 race do appear to have some things in common.  In both cases, the GOPe in Raleigh and DC told us WHO our nominee would be.  In both cases, primary opponents were ignored and the focus went right to the general election. Never mind that we were forfeiting an opportunity to speak our minds, vet the candidates, and have our say on the political *beauty contest.*

We knew very little about Mark Robinson prior to tossing him the nomination and the keys to the governor’s mansion.  Had the voters been given a chance to learn about Nude Africa, Balanced Nutrition, and the PPP loans, the 2024 GOP nomination process and the general election might have turned out a little differently.

The Trump endorsement gets you through the primary, but does very little for you in the general election.  Especially in a year when Trump is not on the ballot.

Polls -even from NCGOPe sycophants like John Locke – indicate that the voters simply don’t know Mike Whatley.  That, my friends, is a killer at this late stage in the game.

Roy Cooper has been around forever. And he’s won more of his fair share of elections.

What are we learning — rather, what should we be learning – here? 

The NCGOP needs a bench for statewide races.  Right now, the Democrats have at least Roy Cooper, Josh Stein and Jeff Jackson who can all run credible statewide races.  More may be coming from that side.

Who does the NCGOP have?

That’s right.  We do have some work ahead of us.

Candidate selection needs to be bottom-up and not top-down.  We need to actually have primaries where the tires are kicked and the stuff under the hood gets checked. No more of Raleigh and DC shoving people down our throats.

The summer vacation season has started.  From Memorial Day until Labor Day, no one is paying attention to elections.  We’ve gone this far – since July 2025 – and roughly half the voters have no idea about our GOP nominee for US Senate. 

September 1 to November 3 is what we have left. 

What we’ve seen thus far doesn’t inspire much to be hopeful about.