By Carl Weinschenk
The Democrats are favored to win the the North Carolina Senate race. The party’s nominee is two-time governor Roy Cooper. The Republican is Michael Whatley, who was chair of the Republican National Committee from 2024 to 2025.
A telling sign on the state of the race–indeed, that it may be over–was reported in late September. Several sources, including the local CBS affiliate, posted that two Republican super PACs had pulled about $7.4 million in support for television and digital advertising from Whatley’s campaign. That was a sign to insiders that the Republicans may believe the seat is gone and the money would better spent on seats more firmly in play.
This check-in has two elements. News coverage, some media highlights, a look at the polling and links to North Carolina voting information start directly below. In the box on the right is an platform that provides results of the past North Carolina senate elections and an interactive tool that suggests how the Senate vote may have changed based on a change in the overall national vote. The tool currently is set to provide information the North Carolina Senate race, but the drop-down at the top enables any state to be assessed. Finally, the platform suggests what were found to be the most important issues in the state. A look at all House districts in the U.S. can be found here.
What’s Important in the North Carolina Senate Race
Vote This Time took a look at North Carolina late last November. It is not surprising that inflation was a big issue. Elon University polled on issue importance in late August. The key paragraph also offered no surprises about what people are thinking about:
Pocketbook issues were at the top of registered voters’ minds as they make their voting decisions. Eighty-six percent said inflation and the cost of living are “very important” issues, with 73% saying the general economy and healthcare are “very important.” Other “very important” issues included taxes (66%), Social Security (64%), personal character of candidates (60%), immigration (54%), the war in Iran (50%) and the environment (43%).
Grading the health of the nation’s economy, 49% of registered voters gave grades of “D” and “F”, with 30% assigning a “C” grade and only 22% giving “A” or “B” grades.
WFMY News 2 took a look at each candidates’ websites to get an idea of how each would address the affordability problem. Whatley’s site focused on “on lowering taxes, reducing federal spending and expanding American energy production,” according to WFMY.
WFMY reporter Ben Briscoe wrote the story. He found that Coopers’ site is more detailed on the issue. It says that Cooper would fight tariffs, block anti-competitive mergers among food companies and prohibit companies from using algorithms to coordinate prices. Briscoe added that the site lists 26 actions across the grocery, health care, energy, child care and housing sectors.
CNBC tried to capture the atmosphere in the state with a profile of Concord, a city in Cabarrus County, northeast of Charlotte. It is a place that the writer characterizes as “safe, with good schools, a lively downtown and neighborhoods filled with families.” The story says that rising grocery and gasoline prices have risen to the point that the mother featured at the beginning of the piece is considering going back to work.
The theme of the piece, which was written by Luke Fountain and Megan Cassella, is that businesses are coming into Concord–but that folks are not keeping pace and are worried.
What Do the Polls Say?
Cooper leads in each of the ten most recent polls listed by the New York Times. His smallest lead was 5% from both Quantus Insights and High Point University. Harper Polling polling has him up by 15%. The average is 8.9% and the median is 9.5%.
A High Point University poll released on September 24 and not yet in the Times’ listing gave Cooper a 5 point lead.
How to Vote
A lot of things besides the Senate seat will be on the ballot on November 4. The North Carolina State Board of Elections has the complete list:
- One U.S. Senate seat
- 14 U.S. House seats
- 1 N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice seat
- 3 N.C. Court of Appeals Judge seats
- Three statewide referenda
- 50 N.C. Senate seats
- 120 N.C. House seats
- Local judges and district attorneys
- County offices like sheriffs, county commissioners, and Board of Education members
- Municipal elections in some jurisdictions
The state offers early voting, voting by mail and election day voting. The same BOE page links to details on each method.
Vote This Time offers contact information for voting in each state. In addition, the Brennan Center for Justice provides federal and North Carolina-specific information on voting rights.
Those interested in helping to protect the vote in the state can contact the North Carolina Voter Protection Alliance or the ACLU of North Carolina.
Image: Wikipedia via Creative Commons license.