Republican US Senate candidate Michael Whatley wasn’t exactly searching for kind words to say about former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper during an appearance on Fox News Tuesday.
Asked about the difficult Senate race in North Carolina, Whatley went a lot further than calling Cooper too liberal or saying he’d been a bad governor.
Whatley said, “North Carolina is always going to be tough, but we’re going to win because Roy Cooper was the worst governor in the history of North Carolina.”
That’s a big claim in a state that has had governors for more than 200 years, but Whatley was just getting started on his Democratic opponent.
He said, “He is going to join the Democrats every single time and vote for open borders. He’s going to vote for inflationary spending and a woke, weak America. He’s going to be locked up with Chuck Schumer, James Talarico and the rest of the woke mob. That’s not what North Carolina needs.”
Whatley, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, is facing Cooper in one of the highest-profile US Senate races in the country. The two are running for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.
Whatley spoke with Martha MacCallum on Fox News’ “The Story” from Dallas, where Republicans are gathering for an unusual two-day midterm convention Wednesday, Sept. 9 and Thursday, Sept. 10.
President Donald Trump came up with the idea of holding a Republican convention in a midterm election year as a way to generate enthusiasm and turnout in an election when Trump himself isn’t on the ballot. Trump is scheduled to appear both nights – and the event will include more than 50 speakers including Vice President JD Vance, members of the Trump administration, members of Congress and Republican candidates.
Trump has said that some Republicans might stay home because they only come out to vote for him and his theory is that the best way for Republicans to do well in November is for voter to pretend that he is actually on the ballot.
Trump and the Republicans probably could have come up with better timing for the convention. Those two nights are also the when the first two NFL games of the season will be broadcast and those always have massive ratings.
Still, some people will watch the convention and Whatley is among those scheduled to speak.
Asked what he hoped the convention would accomplish, Whatley said Republicans needed to use it to draw a sharp contrast between the two parties.
“In North Carolina, good policy is good politics, and Roy Cooper is on the wrong side of every single policy issue,” Whatley said.
He added, “What we need to do is use this convention to have a conversation about the contrast that we have in this election cycle between Republican common sense and the Democrats who are pushing very hard for a democratic socialist or even a communist agenda, where they want to take America further and further to the left. Roy Cooper is going to march to the left with the Democrats.”
MacCallum then turned to what may be a more immediate problem for Whatley – the economy. Cooper has made affordability one of the central themes of his campaign and last week his campaign released a television ad consisting largely of Whatley’s own previous comments about prices.
The ad opens with Cooper saying, “I’m going to show you something. No AI, no special effects. Just Michael Whatley in his own words.”
It then cuts to Whatley saying, “Grocery prices are down. Gasoline prices are down. Housing prices are down. Inflation is down.”
After Cooper responds, “Unbelievable,” the ad shows another Whatley clip in which he says, “There is no inflation.”
Cooper then looks into the camera and says, “Seriously?”
The quotations are authentic, although there is some context missing from the ad. FactCheck.org found that Whatley’s statement about grocery, gasoline, housing prices and inflation came from July 2025, while his “there is no inflation” comment came in January 2026. The fact-checking organization found that some of his earlier claims were more defensible at the time they were made – although grocery prices had not actually declined and inflation wasn’t zero.
Cooper’s campaign launched the ad statewide Sept. 1 as part of what it said was a seven-figure television, streaming and digital buy.
MacCallum played part of the Cooper ad for Whatley Tuesday and asked him to respond.
Whatley didn’t back away from defending the Republican economic record, but he shifted the comparison to the economy inherited from former President Joe Biden.
“Roy Cooper and Joe Biden left the American economy in a ditch,” Whatley said. “They drove up inflation 9 percent year over year, 20 percent over four years. Grocery prices, gasoline prices, housing prices went up on their watch, and Republicans are doing everything they can to bring down interest rates, to bring down inflation and make sure that every American can make more and keep more of their money.”
MacCallum pressed Whatley further, asking what would happen politically if the Federal Reserve raised interest rates shortly before the November election.
Whatley again shifted focus to the broader Republican economic message.
“I think what we need to do is strengthen the American economy,” he said. “When we talk about inflation, when we talk about high prices, Roy Cooper’s only solution is to raise taxes. That is not going to work in North Carolina, and it will not work when he votes nationally in the Senate, if he does, to raise taxes every single time. We need to make sure that people make more and they keep more.”
MacCallum followed up more directly, asking whether a Federal Reserve rate increase would create a tougher political environment for Whatley.
“We need to bring down interest rates,” Whatley said. “We need to bring down inflation. We need to make sure that people are going to make more money and they’re going to take home more money and keep more of their money.”
The economy isn’t the only issue that is major in the race: MacCallum also asked Whatley about the war with Iran and the effect rising oil and gasoline prices could have on voters.
Whatley said, “I agree with President Trump. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. They cannot be able to develop and deploy nuclear weapons.”
He added that the United States needed to get the situation under control and keep oil flowing from the Middle East.
The North Carolina race is among a relatively small number of contests expected to play a major role in determining control of the US Senate. Republicans currently hold the seat – making it particularly important to both parties.
As for Whatley’s declaration that Cooper was the “worst governor in the history of North Carolina,” that one may be a little hard to justify.
North Carolina became a state in 1789, and a few of its former governors have accumulated résumés over the past two centuries that would at least make the competition interesting.
There was Charles Brantley Aycock, governor from 1901 to 1905. Aycock is remembered as the state’s “Education Governor,” but he was also an outspoken white supremacist who helped promote the 1900 constitutional amendment designed to disenfranchise Black voters through literacy tests, poll taxes and a grandfather clause. NCpedia notes that Aycock believed politics should be reserved for the white race and worked closely with legislators on the disenfranchisement effort.
Then there was Cameron Morrison, governor from 1921 to 1925. Before becoming governor, Morrison was a leader of the Red Shirts – an organization that used intimidation and threats of violence against Black citizens and political opponents during North Carolina’s white-supremacy campaigns around the turn of the century.
And no discussion of troubled North Carolina governorships would be complete without William Woods Holden, who, in 1871, became the first – and remains the only – North Carolina governor to be impeached, convicted and removed from office. His impeachment followed his use of state troops against the Ku Klux Klan after murders and widespread Klan violence in Alamance and Caswell counties. He was convicted in part for arrests made during what became known as the Kirk-Holden War and for refusing to honor writs of habeas corpus.
So whether Cooper really managed during his eight years in Raleigh to outperform all of those candidates for the title of worst governor in North Carolina history is certainly a matter Whatley and Cooper won’t agree on.
With just eight weeks left before Election Day, Whatley has a lot of ground to make up.
Kalshi prediction markets currently place Cooper’s chances of victory at 91 percent to 9 percent for Whatley. Recent public polling has told much the same general story, with polls from High Point University, Harper Polling, Elon University, Change Research and Fox News all showing Cooper well ahead of Whatley.
