Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley is criticizing polling that shows him far behind former Gov. Roy Cooper.
Whatley blasted a poll by the conservative Carolina Journal that says Cooper is leading by 15 percentage points. He told reporters that the poll was conducted by "the worst pollster in the history of North Carolina." Carolina Journal contracts with Harper Polling to conduct its surveys, which have shown an increasing lead for Cooper since March.
"Every single poll has showed this race is tightening except for yours, which is a trash poll," he said after a campaign event about transgender athletes, in video provided by C-Span. "But the fact is that that the polls have shown that this race is absolutely tightening, that we're right at margin of error, and we're going to win because I've been to all 100 counties."
Recent polls in the Senate race all show Cooper with a lead, ranging from 5 percentage points (a poll by Quantus Insights) to 15 (Carolina Journal).
A polling average from Real Clear Polling shows Cooper with a steady lead of around eight percentage points over the past two months, up from 6.8 percentage points in June. That margin is higher than most other competitive Senate races across the country.
Will campaign dollars shift away?
Those numbers have prompted some national Republican super PACs to consider shifting their advertising to Senate races in other states. The news outlet Semafor reported last week that a GOP PAC called Old North Action has removed $6.5 million in ad reservations for the race.
But Whatley told reporters he's talked to GOP Senate leaders and been assured his race will continue to receive funding. He noted that President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have both campaigned in North Carolina in recent weeks.
"We are going to continue to get support, right?" he said. "We just had the president down last week. We had Vice President Vance in state earlier this week. We will get the support we need to win this race."
PACs tied to President Donald Trump and the Senate Republican Caucus continue to spend millions on ads in North Carolina, and so do PACs for Democrats.
One of the biggest spenders is called “No Going Back PAC Inc.” Federal campaign finance records show it was formed on Sept. 1, and The New York Times describes it as an offshoot of President Donald Trump’s main super PAC, MAGA Inc., which reportedly has $400 million to spend around the country.
Because of its late creation, disclosures on who’s funding it won't be released until close to Election Day. In North Carolina alone, its spending totals close to $8 million for the first three weeks of September.
The bulk of that is paying for TV ads attacking Cooper, but “No Going Back” is also spending in the state’s two most competitive U.S. House races, the 1st and 11th districts.
The new group joins more established national PACs from both parties spending in North Carolina. Here are a few of the totals spent between Aug. 1 and Sept. 22, according to federal disclosure records:
- Senate Leadership Fund (the main PAC for U.S. Senate Republicans): $22.4 million
- WinSenate (a PAC tied to U.S. Senate Democrats): $15.9 million
- Americans For Prosperity: $1.05 million
- Planned Parenthood Votes North Carolina: $624,000
- Congressional Leadership Fund (the PAC for U.S. House Republicans): $1.13 million against Congressman Don Davis
- House Majority PAC (the PAC for U.S. House Democrats): $793,000 against Republican candidates Laurie Buckhout and Jennifer Balkcom
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