New Poll: Cooper OVER Whatley BY TEN !!!

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Show of hands.  Anyone else feel like they’re reliving Robinson for Governor 2024? (I’m sure hoping that Nude Africa does not appear anywhere in Mike Whatley’s browser history.)

Just like in 2024, we’re playing the old Pretend-There-Is-No-Primary game. There is no vetting of the nominee aka “The Chosen One.”  No hard questions got asked because we were pretending there was NO PRIMARY.

In the 2024 race, Robinson was consistently – from the start of the general — behind Stein.  Aaaaaaaaaaaand we all know how that story ended.  

Here’s the polling history for this race thus far:

The latest – from Change Research – has Roy Cooper (for the first time) at the 50 percent mark with Mike Whatley at 40 percent.  The Real Clear Politics average of all polling for Cooper v. Whatley is 9.6 percent.  THAT – in a statewide race – is a romp.

Dan Forest lost to Roy Cooper in 2020 by 4.5 percent. And we haven’t seen or heard from him since.

Change IS a leftist organization.  So, you COULD dismiss their work on those grounds.  But the best Carolina Journal — a HUGE apologist for the state GOP establishment — could come up with was two polls with Whatley down SIX and one with him down EIGHT.

Whatley had a brief honeymoon when he announced back in July.  But since then, the polling has been all-Cooper. No one has been able to produce publicly a credible poll showing Mike Whatley competitive with Roy Cooper.

Some people are suggesting that sticking with Whatley, despite all that info, is a test of loyalty to President Trump.  To that, we say: NONSENSE.

I’ve disagreed in specific circumstances with people I’ve respected.  I’ve disagreed with my political heroes Ronald Reagan and Jesse Helms.  

But those instances did not diminish my respect for them one bit.  I believe President Trump’s political team is serving him poorly.  I believe he’s getting especially poor advice about circumstances in North Carolina.  Despite that, I’ve voted for him three times and would do it a fourth time (if I could).

Playing Pretend-there-is-no-primary was a mistake in 2024 and it’s looking the same in 2026.  We should have had a healthy, robust primary without White House interference. Let us decide who we want carrying our standard into battle in November.

Mindlessly sticking with Mike Whatley looks like a willful concession of the 2026 Senate campaign just as the general election is getting started.

Thom Tillis has been screwing over President Trump since the very beginning. Yet, Trump endorsed him for reelection in 2020.  Here in the second Trump term, Tillis has continued to be less-than-helpful. He’s *retiring*, but his protege and preferred successor Whatley is being pushed as his successor.

Whatley’s political career was launched with significant assistance by Thom and Susan Tillis. When he announced his final run for state party chairman, Whatley turned to Thom Tillis for an endorsement at the press conference. 

Why would Trump endorse and encourage the candidacy of the second-coming of his worst pain-in-the-neck?  Whatley is a lobbyist who has spent his entire adult professional life in the DC swamp.  He is everything the MAGA movement despises.  Yet, the patron saint of the MAGA movement is cheering him on.

Of course, Trump also endorsed and cheered on gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson and two-time  congressional candidate Bo Hines.

Early voting for the 2026 primary is already underway.  Please know that there are options other than Mike Whatley for US Senate.  Sticking with Whatley and following the other lemmings over the cliff is basically ushering in six more years of Roy Cooper on the government payroll.