The hefty political clout that comes with a previous high office is showing its worth once again in North Carolina, where former two-term Democratic governor Roy Cooper is building a mighty money machine against his Republican opponent, Michael Whatley, in a crucial US Senate race. But GOP state representatives are fighting back on another front as November draws closer.
Cooper raised a whopping $13.8 million in the first quarter of the year, according to Federal Election Commission data. How big a number is that for this contest? “Cooper’s first-quarter fundraising numbers are just shy of Whatley’s total cash-in-hand of $16 million, with Whatley pulling in $5 million in the first quarter, the campaign reported,” The Carolina Journal noted.
As is customary with Senate showdowns, the race to fill the seat currently held by maverick Republican Thom Tillis (R-NC) is an expensive one. “Combined with money their campaigns raised in late 2025 – plus additional fundraising by so-called ‘victory’ committees that both candidates use in coordination with their state and national political parties – the data shows that supporters of the two candidates have already pledged more than $50 million to their campaigns,” WRAL-TV in Raleigh reported April 14.
Even here, Cooper is stocking a formidable treasure chest. “In total, Whatley has raised at least $16 million through his campaign and victory committee. Cooper has raised at least $36 million through his campaign and victory committee,” the station detailed.
Cooper “heads into the general election with $18.5 million in the bank, compared to $2.5 million for Whatley,” Politico wrote.
A Murder in Charlotte Enters the Senate Race
But if Cooper is taking full advantage of the cash-accumulating potential of an entrenched political name via his time as governor, there is a downside to that scenario. Cooper also has a record in office from 2017 to 2025 to defend, something his foe, the former chair of the Republican National Committee from March 2024 to August 2025 and ex-chair of the North Carolina Republican Party from 2019 to 2024, does not. And Republicans are busily scouring that record for material they hope will prove especially damaging during this election cycle.
President Donald Trump has stressed an administration agenda of fighting runaway crime in Democrat-controlled cities and states. One example that shocked the nation occurred in North Carolina, in the blue bastion of Charlotte.
On Aug. 22, 2025, 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was senselessly stabbed in the throat and murdered by a complete stranger who had not interacted with her in any way before the vicious attack. It was all captured on video, showing the young woman peacefully minding her own business one moment and then in her death agonies the next.
With this horrific image still ingrained in the minds of North Carolinians, successfully painting Cooper as soft on violent crime would undoubtedly serve as a major boon to Whatley. This is where a new state legislature investigation comes in.
Election-Year Probe May Cut Both Ways
“Republican legislative leaders announced [April 20] the creation of a new oversight subcommittee to investigate COVID-era prisoner releases carried out under former Gov. Roy Cooper,” The Carolina Journal reported.
The specter of once-fashionable but now thoroughly discredited leftist “decarceration” efforts is ably conjured by the involvement of prominent radical national organizations in the affair.
“House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate Leader Phil Berger said the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations Subcommittee on Prisons will examine the decision to release more than 4,200 inmates early as part of a settlement between the Cooper administration and advocacy groups, including the ACLU and NAACP,” the news site related.
“The release of violent, repeat offenders back onto our streets is a serious miscarriage of justice. If Roy Cooper or any other official failed to keep the public safe, the people of this state deserve to know about it,” Hall wrote in an X post.
Democrats, naturally, are not pleased. Cooper “fought against these releases in court,” a campaign spokesman asserted.
“North Carolina law enforcement officials and parole officers looked to similar criteria President Trump used a year prior when his administration released thousands of federal prisoners due to COVID-19,” Jordan Monaghan stated. “North Carolina Republican leaders were regularly briefed on this process over five years ago, only now raising this issue in the middle of a political campaign.”
Tellingly, there was no hint of defending prison-release programs that so many Democrats were lining up to support in the heyday of the George Floyd hysteria.
“Crime is one of the issues that Democrats are most vulnerable on, just historically,” David McLennan, professor of political science at Meredith College, told progressive-affiliated news site NC Newsline. “I think they’ll paint a very compelling story. Now, whether or not voters of North Carolina will see through it in terms of it being just a political committee, I don’t know.”
Indeed, Republicans must beware of potential blowback from the perception that they are using the state legislature to investigate a rival-party candidate just months before a vitally important election.
“It seems just overtly political,” McLennan stated, not without reason. “The initial response I had was this was an attempt to paint Cooper in a very poor light in terms of crime.”
Cooper has been ahead in the polls up to now by a solid margin. A new High Point University Survey Research Center/YouGov survey gives him a 50%-42% lead on Whatley. And he has all that money to help him frame his own narrative on his record on crime during his eight years as governor.
Big money, hot-button issues, and an ultra-tight Senate party breakdown heading into November. It all assures that the sparks will be flying in North Carolina this summer and fall.
