NC’s US Senate race 2026: One big woke, green mess?
Our ticket-topper in November is starting to look like a real lose-lose situation. You think you found a reason to not vote for one of the two major party candidates. But then you learn the other guy has been just as bad.
ESG. That’s short for Environmental, Social, and Governmental. It’s a relatively new system being pushed by leftists to evaluate businesses and individuals. It’s a left-wing replacement for the ol’ credit score we’ve all come to know and love. Under ESG, you or your business will be evaluated under each of the three categories from a clearly left-wing standpoint. If you do not come out as sufficiently leftist, you or your business might not get that loan. You might not get that job.
Here’s what we’ve learned on Cooper:
[…] As part of that effort, Cooper is trying to project an image of himself as the second coming of former West Virginia Senator and conservative Democrat Joe Manchin.
But Cooper’s investments tell a different story: It turns out the Democrat has plowed tons of money into funds managed by ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) investment titans.
Cooper filed an updated personal financial disclosure form (PFD) with the United States Senate on August 13. On that PFD, Cooper discloses between $2,605,039 and $5,876,001 invested with two investment houses: Vanguard and Charles Schwab. Both have prioritized ESG investing heavily in recent years.
None of Cooper’s money sits with explicitly branded ESG funds offered by either Schwab or Vanguard.
Recent years have seen a push from conservatives and traditional investment strategy advocates for divestment from Vanguard funds, specifically, though less so Schwab.
Of Cooper’s total investments, $1,284,013 is held with Vanguard, specifically.
Back in 2023, Cooper vetoed anti-ESG leislation passed by the state legislature.
The North Carolina legislature overrode that veto.
North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell called the override a move against “Wacktivism.”
“The best interests of North Carolina taxpayers and retirees will be served through legislative passage of House Bill 750, which requires investment decisions to be made on the basis of the highest financial returns, not social and political ‘wacktivism,'” said Folwell.
“This is a good day in North Carolina. We are grateful to those lawmakers who understand the need to shield the state pension plan against the movement to weaponize public retirement systems to achieve extreme agendas,” Folwell continued.
Cooper disagreed. He holds at least $250,001 in three Vanguard funds: VYM (Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF), VTIAX (Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares), and VTSAX (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares). None of those are explicitly ESG funds, but they are Vanguard investments. […]
(HBW Resources, the firm Whatley co-founded, has also preached the gospel of ESG .)
We’ve learned from Whatley’s reports that he was apparently lobbying during his tenure as NCGOP chairman AND as RNC chairman. 
Our previous post also revealed a handful of Whatley’s paying clients.
We found a little more detail about these companies and what they do:
[…] And what do those clients do? The short version is: Green energy and decarbonization.
GE Vernova describes itself this way on its corporate website: “At GE Vernova, we are united by a single, urgent, and optimistic mission: electrify to thrive and decarbonize.”
The website adds that in GE Vernova’s view, “The world needs us to accelerate the transition to more reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy.”
Vernova is also heavily invested in providing “data center solutions.”
Centrus is a nuclear energy company (nuclear is a major rival to natural gas; the two branches of the energy sector have been feuding for at least a decade now over everything from how to power data centers to the UAMPS nuclear proposal in Utah).
And the Renewable Fuels Association is the trade association that advocates for ethanol mandates and regulatory subsidies.
Ethanol blending requirements have been a long-favored green energy policy advocated by Democrats, most notably former President Barack Obama and former President Joe Biden, who set them at a very high level during his presidency.
But those mandates are currently being blamed for adding between 20 cents and a dollar to every gallon of gas in North Carolina. Truckers also revile them because they’re driving diesel costs up. […]
