Trump Picked the Man Who Won Him the White House to Take Down Roy Cooper

Roy Cooper released more than 4,000 prisoners – including pedophiles, rapists, and murderers – back into North Carolina communities.

Now he wants to be their senator.

Michael Whatley just won the Republican primary to make sure that never happens.

Michael Whatley Won the RNC Chairmanship and Then Helped Win Trump the White House

Michael Whatley is not a political outsider looking to make his name.

He ran the Republican National Committee during Trump's 2024 landslide – building the ground operation, the legal infrastructure, and the election integrity apparatus that delivered the presidency.

When Lara Trump decided not to run for the open North Carolina Senate seat, Trump didn't just endorse Whatley – he publicly said, "I need him in Washington."

That's not a routine endorsement.

That's the commander in chief saying this specific man is essential to finishing the job.

Whatley won the GOP primary Tuesday, and Roy Cooper won the Democratic side, setting up what could become the most expensive Senate race in American history – with estimates running as high as $500 million.

The seat belongs to retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, who walked away rather than face a Trump-backed primary challenge after voting against the One Big Beautiful Bill.

North Carolina voted for Trump in 2024, 2020, and 2016.

A Democrat hasn't won a Senate race in the state since 2008.

Roy Cooper Released 4000 Prisoners and Then Iryna Zarutska Was Stabbed to Death

Roy Cooper spent eight years as governor and the results are not complicated.

He signed an executive order mandating cashless bail and pre-trial release for misdemeanor offenses – a revolving door that put violent offenders back on the streets days after their arrests.

He released more than 4,000 prisoners early, including 51 inmates serving life sentences.

One of those connected cases was Decarlos Brown Jr. – the man with more than a dozen prior criminal arrests who allegedly stabbed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska to death on a Charlotte light-rail train last August.

Trump named Zarutska's mother from the podium at last week's State of the Union.

Cooper has rejected those accusations and pointed to 16 years as North Carolina's attorney general as proof of his law enforcement record.

But his campaign strategy tells the real story – he's running on healthcare and affordability, not his criminal justice legacy, because there's no defense for what he let happen.

North Carolina Senate Race 2026 Is the Only Path Democrats Have to Take the Chamber

Democrats need to flip four Senate seats in November to take back the chamber.

Political analysts on both sides agree that North Carolina is their single best opportunity.

Without Roy Cooper, that path closes.

That's why Cooper – who has never lost a race in nearly 40 years of North Carolina politics – cleared the field before the primary even started.

Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand were out with statements Tuesday night praising Cooper as if the race were already won.

It isn't.

North Carolina has gone Republican in every Senate race since Kay Hagan's 2008 win – a race she only won because Barack Obama was driving record turnout at the top of the ticket.

Hagan still lost to Thom Tillis in 2014 by 45,000 votes, even as Democrats poured more than $100 million into the state trying to hold the seat.

The pattern is not subtle.

What Trump Knows That Democrats Don't

Trump doesn't make political investments that don't pay off.

He watched Whatley build the RNC into a disciplined, election-ready machine.

He watched him hold North Carolina through three consecutive presidential cycles.

He knows that Whatley understands every county, every media market, and every persuadable voter in a state that looks purple on a map but keeps voting red at the Senate level.

Cooper is going to spend this race trying to convince North Carolina he's a reasonable moderate – an independent voice willing to work with Trump when convenient, opposed to him when the left demands it.

Roy Cooper is going to spend the next eight months telling North Carolina he's a reasonable guy who just wants to help families.

Meanwhile, Iryna Zarutska's mother is sitting in the front row of the State of the Union because her daughter is dead.

That's the race.

Sources:

• Susan Ferrechio, "Ex-RNC chairman Whatley to face former Democrat Gov. Cooper in North Carolina Senate race," The Washington Times, March 3, 2026.
• "Whatley, Cooper win North Carolina primaries, CBS News projects, teeing up key Senate contest," CBS News, March 3, 2026.
• "Cooper-Whatley U.S. Senate race 'a true test of where the state is,'" WRAL, March 3, 2026.
• "Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley To Face Off In N.C. Senate Race," The Assembly NC, March 3, 2026.
• "Trump-backed RNC Chair Michael Whatley launches North Carolina Senate bid," The Hill, July 31, 2025.