#NCSEN26: Another poll, another BIG lead for Cooper over Whatley
Not long ago, CBS17 out of Raleigh partnered with Emerson College to let us know our former governor had a six point lead in the general election race over Michael Whatley. Now, according to Harper Polling – in cooperation with a known shill for the NCGOPe – has that lead for Roy Cooper at EIGHT POINTS.
Nine-point-eight percent UNSURE. An EIGHT point lead. That’s not a lot of room to chip away at that lead. For Team Whatley, it will require some serious carpet-bombing of enemy positions.
For those who want to claim it’s a biased poll — remember that the group paying for this is really really really in the tank for Michael Whatley. And combat hasn’t even started yet.
(Though, the margin of error is ridiculous large.)
Remember that Cooper, in his last statewide run in 2020, defeated incumbent Lt. Governor Dan Forest by 4.5 percent. (While Donald Trump was winning in North Carolina.) That Cooper winning percentage translated to roughly 250,000 votes. Right now, we’re talking about a lead roughly twice that size. Roughly 500,000 votes statewide. That’s nothing to sneeze at.
Also, keep in mind, there IS a GOP primary scheduled for March. The Raleigh-DC 
crowd doesn’t want you to remember that. They’re trying to protect their investment and keep all of us as much outside of the process as possible.
*He can fundraise! He can fundraise!* That’s the first line of defense for folks trying to defend Whatley from critics. It seems like just yesterday that prominent NCGOP donors were publicly griping about Mike Whatley. Much of the Whatley era had the state party bank account stuffed with pass-through funds from the RNC in DC. (Those folks have been taking care of their boy Mike for some time.)
Mid-year election. Trump won’t be top of ticket; this is a MASSIVE hill to climb. ANY candidate facing coop would be a tough battle. Dems know it, coop know it and does NCGOP. Forest was a horrible candidate; unsure if Whatley battles betters, actually tries to win. Forest put up little battle, little force and was virtually silent.
To think of coop being in senate for 6Y is disgusting with his handling of NC matters as AG and then gov. COVID, NCDOT, the SBI/rape kit disaster, the train cars bought and hid in Nash Co., Bd of Elections/Bell. COVID/Mandy darling should be enough to run him out of this state.