Whatley speaks on TV. NEW polls show leads of EIGHT and ELEVEN for Cooper.

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Yes, folks.  Miss Sophie Cunningham (pictured) is pointing at all of you who told us *unwashed conservatives* to not waste our time on a primary.  *Michael Whatley is the only one who can beat Roy Cooper.* (Try to deny it. We do have receipts.)

The Trump White House decided to host an unprecedented midterm national convention to fire up the troops.  They’ve meddled pretty heavily in our state and set us on a course to send the most undeserving snake-oil salesman on the eastern seaboard  to Washington for (at least) six years.

Michael Whatley, former NCGOP chairman and RNC chairman, got a prime speaking slot at the nationally-televised convention earlier this week.  The drive-bys had Whatley on TV for interviews. Did any of this help?

Apparently not.  Two new polls are out:

Here is the ECU data if you want to know more about the survey.  Here is the Elon data if you want to know more.

This continues Roy Cooper‘s streak of leading every poll since folks began polling the Whatley-Cooper matchup in July 2025.

This was ECU’s first stab at the 2026 US Senate race.  Elon last polled this race at the end of July – where Cooper led 53-42.  The margin is the same, but both candidates appear to have lost support since then.

If you are worried about other candidates on the November ballot, there may be a silver lining.  The last Harper poll showed that most supporters of Cooper were voting FOR him, but NOT his party.  On the other side of the coin, it showed most Whatley supporters were voting AGAINST Cooper and FOR the GOP.  So, it is yet to be seen if there will be any coattails from this race. 

One goal the Whatley campaign needs to focus on is avoiding the dubious *honor* of being the victim of the worst beat-down of a NCGOP US Senate candidate in 50 years.  Right now, former senator Elizabeth Dole holds that honor.  She lost to Kay Hagan by 8.5% in 2008. Whatley appears to be on track to dethrone Dole and claim that, um, *prize.*

The Real Clear Politics (RCP) average of all polls has Cooper with an average lead of 8.0 over Whatley. 

Going by the RCP average, Roy Cooper appears to be faring better than any other Democrat candidate in the top ten races Real Clear Politics is following.