Cooper vs. Whatley is a “lopsided combination that will likely cost Republicans a Senate seat and could put their Senate majority at risk”

As he launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate, DC insider and Big Oil lobbyist Michael Whatley was immediately slammed for his career as a political hack, his agenda of ripping health care from over 650,000 North Carolinians, and his ties to extremist Mark Robinson. 

His lackluster campaign launch was called “a surrender,” and a sign the GOP is “running out of energy, issues and formidable candidates.” 

Raleigh News & Observer: Democrats attack RNC chairman Michael Whatley’s entrance to NC’s Senate race

Danielle Battaglia | July 31, 2025

• Democrats held a news conference Thursday morning in Charlotte, set up a website to lay out Whatley’s record, launched an attack ad on that website and sent a news release to media.
• North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Anderson Clayton criticized Whatley in the news release for being a political operative, lobbyist and “hand-picked by Washington Republicans to serve billionaires and special interests.”
• She also tied Whatley to former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who lost his election bid for governor in November after a political scandal linked him to racist and raunchy messages posted on a porn forum.
• “Michael Whatley… will rip healthcare from families, raise costs, threaten women’s health care and put North Carolina jobs at risk,” Clayton said.
• “In 2026, we have an opportunity to send Roy Cooper, a champion for everyday North Carolinians and Medicaid expansion to the United States Senate,” Helfrich said, during the news conference. “Meanwhile, Michael Whatley who is announcing his campaign just down the road today, has championed Medicaid cuts, calling them the ‘embodiment’ of his agenda and a ‘huge win.’ I see no win for the North Carolina I serve.”

American Journal News: Whatley runs for Senate as Robinson scandals resurface

Jesse Valentine | July 31, 2025

• Michael Whatley is trying to focus on the future in his U.S. Senate campaign in North Carolina, but the shadow of the GOP’s last statewide candidate, former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, is likely to loom large.
• Robinson lost the 2024 governor’s race by almost 15 points, in part due to his reputation for making sexist and bigoted remarks, including in the comment section of a porn website. He also embraced several far-right policies, including a total abortion ban.
• “Mark is a man of tremendous faith and a very solid conservative,” Whatley said in a September 2020 radio interview, when Robinson was first running for lieutenant governor. “I think he missed his calling as a Baptist preacher. He’s one of the most elegant, powerful speakers that I’ve seen in politics in generations.”
• Whatley added that Robinson is a “man of the people.”
• When Robinson won the 2020 race for lieutenant governor, Whatley said on social media that other Republicans should emulate him.
• When Robinson secured the Republican nomination for governor in March 2024, Whatley publicly endorsed him.
• Around the same time, former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a fellow Republican, told CNN that Whatley was partially to blame for Robinson’s rise. McCory said Whatley “ignored many known flaws that many of us knew about [Robinson] and just assumed they’d be brushed over. But [Robinson’s campaign] has been a ticking time bomb for several years now.”
• […] On July 23, Tillis told Axios that Robinson’s campaign was an “embarrassment” and that North Carolina Republicans should “learn a lesson” from his candidacy.

Raleigh News & Observer: Republicans already seem to be surrendering North Carolina’s US Senate race [Opinion] 

Ned Barnett | July 31, 2025

• Former Gov. Roy Cooper is running for U.S. Senate. That’s welcome news for North Carolina‘s Democrats, who haven’t won a Senate seat since 2008 — but less welcome news for his likely Republican opponent.
• […] it’s also true that Whatley is unlikely to defeat Cooper, a popular two-term governor and four-term state attorney general. That Trump has turned to Whatley seems a surrender, a sign that the Republican Party – or rather Trump’s MAGA version of it – is running out of energy, issues and formidable candidates.
• [Whatley has] never run for public office, is unknown outside Republican inner circles, and has the baggage that comes with backing Trump’s false claims, including The Big Lie that the 2020 election involved “massive fraud.”
• Republican candidates will have to defend his unpopular “One Big, Beautiful Bill” and his cuts in research grants that hurt the Research Triangle economy. And who knows what the Epstein imbroglio will do to his ability to turn out MAGA voters.
• […] Trump has drawn Cooper in and put Whatley up, a lopsided combination that will likely cost Republicans a Senate seat and could put their Senate majority at risk.

Fox News: Trump-backed RNC chair jumps into ‘marquee’ Senate race in battleground North Carolina

Paul Steinhauser | July 31, 2025

• Democrats took aim at Whatley in advance of his campaign launch. 
• “Now, Whatley is heading back to North Carolina to sell Trump’s budget betrayal that took health care away from more than 650,000 North Carolinians and spiked costs for working families,” Democratic National Committee communications director Rosemary Boeglin argued in a statement. Trump and Whatley’s toxic agenda will hang around Whatley like an albatross.” 
• And as Whatley announced his candidacy, the Cooper campaign blasted him. 
• “Michael Whatley is a D.C. insider and big oil lobbyist who supports policies that are ripping health care away from North Carolinians and raising costs for middle class families,” Cooper campaign manager Jeff Allen charged. “North Carolinians don’t need a lobbyist as their Senator, and voters will have a clear choice between Whatley’s long career as a Beltway insider against Roy Cooper’s record of putting partisanship aside to get results for North Carolina.”

WATCH ON ABC 11:

ABC 11: “The North Carolina Democratic Party sharing a message on X today saying, ‘Meet Michael Whatley – longtime political hack and Big Oil lobbyist who called ripping health care away from 650,000 North Carolinians a ‘huge win’ and has cozied up to extremist Mark Robinson.’ The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee shared this statement as well today, saying in part, ‘Republicans are stuck with Whatley after Senator Tillis retired rather than run on the GOP’s toxic agenda. And North Carolina voters will reject his self-serving politics to send Governor Cooper to the Senate in 2026.’”

WATCH ON WRAL:

WRAL: “Democrats are already bringing up Whatley’s strong support for some of Trump’s more unpopular decisions like the medicaid cuts in the so-called big beautiful bill. Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton says he’s a longtime lobbyist who will be a rubber stamp for anything the president wants to do. ‘I don’t necessarily think that Michael Whatley’s got the best interest of North Carolinians. He’s got the best interest of billionaire backers and donors right now who want to see a Republican hold this seat at any cost.’”

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