Dems Think North Carolina Is a Lock for Them. Roy Cooper Nuked That Narrative With These Remarks.

Every poll has North Carolina as a GOP bloodbath in November. Is it shocking? Not really—former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is historically popular and has won handily statewide in his past elections. He’s running to fill the vacancy that will come from Sen. Thom Tillis’ (R-NC) departure from public life. Republican Michael Whatley has a name-recognition issue, but it can be fixed. He’s already tried that with a 100-county tour. He needed cash, and now the GOP is bombarding the state.

Over the summer, Whatley trailed by only four points in a Public Policy Polling survey, a Democratic poll. Yet Cooper has pulled away. What he said recently doesn’t bode well for Democrats hoping for an easy win here. In fact, his remarks seem to admit that the current polling is outright crap. Cooper said he believes this race will be close, between one and three points, so that’s a pretty damning admission, given that he’s been peppered with polls showing double-digit blowouts:

The fact that Roy Cooper is saying that this race will come down to between 1 and 3 percent means Democrats including their own candidate don’t even believe the polls and think they do not currently have this race locked up and may lose it. https://t.co/FuZ4mB9VQv

— Matthew Boyle (@mboyle1) September 13, 2026

And this doesn’t help:

🚨🚨🚨

Yikes. @RoyCooperNC wants MORE people released from prison - before their time is served and before they are rehabilitated.

He’s already released more than 4,200 prisoners….and he wants more.

This is a whacky woke and dangerous.

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) September 13, 2026

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