North Carolina voters on Tuesday will select nominees for the race to replace Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican who decided not to run again and is openly opposing President Trump, giving Democrats hope they can flip the seat.
There are several candidates in the primary field, but clear front-runners on both sides, including a Trump-aligned Republican and a Democrat with massive name recognition.
Michael Whatley, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and ex-chairman of the North Carolina GOP, is leading the pack on the Republican side. He enjoys the endorsement of Mr. Trump, who urged him to run after his daughter-in-law Lara Trump decided not to pursue the seat.
“He’s running for the Senate, and if he gets in, you’re going to be taken care of,” Mr. Trump told military families at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in mid-February.
Roy Cooper, a Democrat who served as governor from 2017 to 2025, is the heavy favorite on the left side of the ledger. Democrats hope his resume and familiarity will help them win a Senate race for the first time since 2008.
“The man has never lost an election and was twice elected governor while the state voted for Trump for president,” said Steven Greene, a political science professor at North Carolina State University. “Most elections are determined by partisanship, but, at the margins, candidates matter, and Cooper has proven himself to be a very strong candidate.”
North Carolina has intriguing politics.
Republicans control the Legislature, but Democrats have controlled the governor’s chair for nearly a decade, between Mr. Cooper and the current governor, Josh Stein.
Despite Northeastern liberal transplants flooding the state, the Republican presidential candidate has won the electoral votes in seven of the last eight presidential elections, with Barack Obama breaking the mold in 2008.
The state has had two Republican senators in Washington since January 2015, after Mr. Tillis defeated the Democratic incumbent, Kay Hagan.
Mr. Tillis decided in June that he would not run again. Around the same time, he opposed Mr. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, citing cuts to Medicaid.
He’s bucked Mr. Trump since then, saying he will not support Mr. Trump’s nominees to the Federal Reserve, including chair pick Kevin Warsh, until a criminal investigation into current Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell is resolved.
Political analysts say those dynamics haven’t directly impacted the primaries. Instead, voters are discussing some of the same things impacting America at large, such as Mr. Trump, affordability and immigration.
Don Brown, an attorney who served in the U.S. Navy, and Michele Morrow, the 2024 GOP nominee for N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction, are among Mr. Whatley’s most notable opponents.
Ms. Morrow has “some name recognition and proven success within Republican primaries,” Mr. Greene said. “This time around, though, in this race, she just does not seem to be getting a lot of traction.”
On the campaign trail, Mr. Whatley recently called for a full ban on stock trading by members of Congress.
“Public service should never be about personal profit,” Mr. Whatley said. “If you’re elected to serve, your duty is to the voters and not your portfolio.” The GOP front-runner used the idea as a way to hammer Mr. Cooper as a career politician who “lives off the taxpayer dime with nothing meaningful to show in return.”
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, attacked Mr. Cooper as a soft-on-crime Democrat who allowed repeated offenders to be released and reoffend.
Robert Colon, a perennial North Carolina candidate for office, is among a handful of Democratic challengers to Mr. Cooper, though the former governor is expected to coast to the nomination.
Looking ahead to the general election, Mr. Cooper is focusing on the cost of health care, a major talking point for Democrats in Washington.
“Instead of helping working families, Washington, D.C., politicians are recklessly driving up costs, all the while Michael Whatley is cheering them on,” Mr. Cooper said at a Feb. 19 roundtable in Greensboro, North Carolina.
North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton attacked Mr. Whatley as a creature of Washington.
“While D.C. insider Michael Whatley has spent his career as a Big Oil lobbyist enriching himself and special interests, Roy Cooper has spent his delivering for middle-class families,” Ms. Clayton said. “Voters know that Roy always has their back, and Whatley is only looking out for himself.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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