Amid powerful economic headwinds, President Donald Trump rallied loyalists Wednesday in North Carolina, aiming to drive up the Republican vote in a key Senate race in which his chosen candidate has been trailing in the polls. Michael Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chair, has so far failed to gain traction against Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper, even with anticipation of new momentum from a late-race cash infusion. An Elon University/YouGov survey released last week found Cooper leading by 11 points among likely voters. Wednesday's rally in deep-red Gastonia outside Charlotte offered Trump one of his first public venues to verbally rip into Cooper, as he repeatedly painted the Tar Heel State as riddled with crime and violent criminals. Whatley, the president said, would support stiff penalties for convicted criminals if elected. “We're going to elect one of the greatest men that I've ever worked with in government, Michael Whatley, to go and become the United States senator," Trump said. “Nobody used to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state,” he added. “And now it's one of the most violent and one of the worst in the whole nation. And it all started with Cooper.” North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation data showed the state’s crime index rate per 100,000 people climbed 2.3 percent between 2022 and 2023, when Cooper was serving his second gubernatorial term. Over Cooper’s last two full years in office, 2023 and 2024, the index rate dropped by 4.2 percent, according to NCSBI data. Whatley, whom Trump recruited into the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, has shown little interest in putting distance between himself and the president. On Wednesday, Trump repeated to his supporters his plea from last week’s Republican midterms convention in Dallas. “In this election, I'm asking you to pretend I'm on the ballot just one more time,” the president said. “I'm not bragging, but when I'm on the ticket, Republicans have always done really well. They go out, they vote — everybody gets elected.” Once summoned onstage by Trump, Whatley, like other GOP candidates at presidential rallies, praised the party leader. He said he signed on to Trump’s 2016 campaign because he had “a plan to rebuild our economy, to restore our borders, and keep our communities safe, and make sure that America is the strongest, most respected nation on the face of the earth.” “I'm running for Senate because I want every one of your kids and every one of your grandkids to live the American Dream, just like I have here in North Carolina,” Whatley said to cheers from the crowd. “And I am excited about fighting for North Carolina, for every family, for every community, and fighting alongside the greatest president of our lifetime, Donald J. Trump." Democrats, who need a net gain of four seats to win the Senate, see North Carolina as their best chance of flipping a seat. At least six polls completed since Aug. 6 have shown Cooper with an average lead of 8.3 points. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales currently rates the race Tilt Democratic. Republican congressional candidates for months have faced a number of political headwinds, including Trump’s diminished standing with voters — especially independents — and limited enthusiasm among GOP voters. They also have to explain still-high prices of everyday items and gasoline, as well as the president’s conflict in Iran and the lingering effects of his tariffs. Tillis told reporters earlier Wednesday on Capitol Hill that history makes clear that Republican candidates will be hard-pressed to outrun such economic forces. “It's really difficult to see, in 48 days, how you're going to have a discernible impact on energy,” he said. “The election's 48 days from now. Can you have some downward [impact]? Maybe, but the Iranians are not dumb. They know we've got an election, and my guess is they're going to do everything they can to prevent us from having any discernible [price] decrease beforehand." “[High prices] affected the Democrats in the Biden midterms,” Tills added. “At the end of the day, it's the economy. … When it's good, the incumbent party benefits from it. When it's bad, they don't.” To that end, Trump’s tariffs have had an impact on prices. But the president on Wednesday proposed further tariffs should Canada become an associate member of the European Union. “If they do that, if I think it's at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things,” he told reporters at the Charlotte Douglass International Airport before the rally. 'Cowardly sellouts' Still, history gives North Carolina Republicans some hope that Whatley can close ground. That’s because the state’s voting history and the potential for an influx of homestretch spending on Whatley's behalf suggest the race remains competitive, despite Cooper's current polling lead. North Carolina has voted for Trump in three straight presidential elections and last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 2008. Meantime, Cooper enters the final stretch of the Senate race with several built-in advantages, including broad name recognition from more than two decades in statewide office (two terms as governor and four as state attorney general) and a sizable fundraising lead. His campaign reported raising $34 million through June 30, compared with $11 million for Whatley. Cooper also began July with $21 million in his war chest, while Whatley had $3.5 million banked. The campaigns have been emphasizing sharply different messages. Whatley has tried portraying Cooper as a longtime progressive insider. Cooper has focused on affordability, as well as Whatley’s ties to Trump and his past lobbying work for Duke Energy. “North Carolina families deserve a senator who knows their job is to bring down costs, not a politician like Whatley who is beholden to special interests and fighting only to boost his own stock portfolio,” Mallory Payne, senior communications adviser for the North Caroline Democratic Party, said in a Sept. 3 statement. While Cooper’s candidacy has been widely viewed as recruiting coup for Democrats, Republicans have argued that his views are more aligned with his party’s progressive wing. “Right here in Charlotte, you've seen the deadly consequences of weak, cowardly sellouts to the radical left, like Cooper,” Trump said in Gastonia. "He tries to pretend he's a moderate. He's not. He's a radical-left, weak person.” Trump said he would return to North Carolina before Election Day to campaign for Whatley.
