This week, North Carolina Republicans sent an unmistakable message: They aren’t enthusiastic about DC insider Michael Whatley. Whatley earned less support than Mark Robinson did in the 2024 GOP primary, even after Whatley and his allies spent over $6 million and received Trump’s endorsement.
Even Republicans know that Whatley is only looking out for himself and will never put North Carolina families first.
CNN: “Cooper, a top Democratic recruit for the cycle, received more than 90% of the vote in his primary. Whatley, who is running with Trump’s endorsement, got about 65% of the vote on the Republican side — a potential sign of work to do with GOP voters heading into the fall campaign.”
Charlotte Observer: Opinion: “Whatley ended the night with less than two-thirds of the Republican vote, according to unofficial results. His closest opponent got more than 15% of the vote, despite not even reaching double digits in recent polls. Now he has to try to win those voters back. Whatley also only got a little more than half the raw number of votes that former Gov. Roy Cooper did in the Democratic primary — a sign that Republicans are trailing in enthusiasm heading into a competitive general election.”
CNN: “You are seeing, more MAGA candidates getting some of the, what you would think of normally as the Trumpy base, so some of the Trump base not going with Trump’s candidates […] But I just point that out – that Roy Cooper coasts and Whatley has just a little bit.”
WCNC: “Former Gov. Roy Cooper won the Democratic nomination in what Bitzer described as a coronation, yet more than 200,000 more voters participated in the Democratic primary than in the Republican primary. The gap caught the attention of analysts on both sides. […] ‘The race was actually on the Republican side. To see that 200,000 vote imbalance really sends a signal to me that this is something to watch over the next eight months as we lead into the general campaign.’”
CNN: “We saw an enthusiastic Democratic primary electorate there as well, even though it was really not a contest. (Former Gov.) Roy Cooper was going to be the nominee. But we still saw, you know, much more Democratic primary participation than on the Republican side in the Senate race.”
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