Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper, who is running for U.S. Senate, speaks to reporters after casting his ballot on the first day of in-person early voting in the state's primary election.Allen G. Breed/AP
Early voting in the primaries for a hotly contested North Carolina US Senate race began today, with a field that includes a moderate former Democratic governor, a January 6 rioter, and a Trump-backed Republican. Winning the battleground state’s Senate race is vital for Republicans who want to keep the seat—and the Senate—and for Democrats, who hope to flip it.
Roy Cooper, the amiable ex-North Carolina governor with a middle-of-the-road approach to politics, is the anticipated pick for the Democratic Party. Cooper spent nearly 40 years in state politics, and his campaign has raised almost $18 million since launching last summer. If he were to win the race, Cooper would be the first Democrat to win a US Senate seat in North Carolina since 2008. As I wrote last month, Cooper was elected to his first gubernatorial term in 2016 at the same time President Donald Trump won North Carolina.
Former RNC chair Michael Whatley is widely considered the frontrunner in the Republican primary. Though he enters the race with low name recognition compared to Cooper, he also has Trump’s endorsement, with the president promising that Whatley would be an “unbelievable Senator.” This is Whatley’s first time on the ticket, but he previously served as chief of staff for Sen. Elizabeth Dole and as legal counsel for former President George W. Bush during the recount for the 2000 presidential election.
If he does win the whole thing, voters shouldn’t expect Whatley to challenge the president much. At a recent rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina (in Cooper’s home county), Whatley told the crowd that they “need a conservative champion, and Donald Trump needs an ally in the Senate.” He told the Washington Post, “I think if I do disagree with [Trump], it’s going to be in private.”
Whatley’s primary challengers, Don Brown and Michele Morrow, haven’t raised nearly as much money, but they could still pose a threat. Brown is a retired Navy JAG Officer who previously ran for Congress in 2024, but lost in the primary. It’s not hard to see where Brown stands on the issues, thanks to the detailed list of policies on his website. Among these policies are 12-year term limits for members of Congress, an elimination of the federal income tax, and the end of the “failure” of the Department of Education “experiment.”
Morrow previously ran for North Carolina’s superintendent of public instruction in 2024, where she lost by just a 2 percent margin. She is a registered nurse and former Christian missionary who was at the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection and has called public schools “socialism centers” and “indoctrination centers.” In the past, Morrow promoted QAnon conspiracy theories on social media. She called for the televised execution of former President Barack Obama. She asserted that the “+” in LGBTQ+ stood for pedophilia. On her campaign’s homepage, she claims that she’s “the one candidate Roy Cooper FEARS!”
A January poll from Carolina Forward still shows Cooper leading Whatley, 47 percent to 42 percent, in a potential November matchup. The poll also shows that Whatley will be the likely Republican candidate. Brown, who is his closest opponent, trails 36 percent to 6 percent. There are five other Democratic candidates and three additional Republican candidates, though none of them are likely to be factors in the race.
The start of the primaries launches what’s expected to be a tight, expensive race. Spending is expected to reach anywhere from $650 million to $800 million, according to Politico.
