President Donald Trump spoke in North Carolina on Wednesday to campaign for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley in Gastonia, where Whatley lives.
Trump has known Whatley for years from the campaign trail. Whatley helped run his campaigns in North Carolina and eventually became leader of the national Republican Party. On Wednesday Trump said he’d make a good Senator.
“Sometimes I don’t like him,” Trump said of Whatley. “He’s too aggressive. And he actually — you know, I’m looking at him, he looks like such a nice man — he’s not really that nice. He’s a very effective man. … He’s great in terms of representation, which is what we care about. That’s the guy you want.”
Ahead of the president’s arrival, Whatley told WRAL he welcomed Trump’s help on the campaign trail. “He is fighting for the people of North Carolina,” Whatley said in an interview. “I am going to fight every single day for the people of this great state.”
Several hundred supporters had gathered at the Gastonia Municipal Airport two hours ahead of then, for prayers and speeches given by other Republican politicians on the ballot this year, as well as U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Trump spoke briefly with reporters on the tarmac in Gastonia as he was arriving in town ahead of the rally, criticizing Cooper’s handling of Hurricane Helene. The federal government is typically responsible for most disaster recovery efforts, and under Trump the federal funding for Helene relief has slowed to a trickle, state officials have been saying for more than a year.
“Roy Cooper, the former governor, was a disaster on crime and a disaster on all sorts of hazards,” Trump said. “We had the hurricane, the big hurricane. Helene, I believe it was named. And he was horrible.”
Whatley has tied himself closely to Trump in his bid for the Senate, promising to deliver votes for Trump’s priorities if elected. Whatley recently spoke at the Republican National Committee‘s midterm convention alongside Trump, and he repeated much of the same messaging during Wednesday’s speech, focused on transgender issues, immigration and crime.
Trump and Whatley each repeated false claims about Cooper’s record, including a debunked claim about whether Cooper released a man from prison who would later be arrested for murder in Charlotte. As Whatley railed against Cooper, the crowd chanted: “Lock him up!”
Cooper’s campaign told WRAL in response: “Michael Whatley is getting desperate and it’s shameful that he’s using heinous crimes to try to deceive North Carolinians.”
Whatley also said if Cooper is elected, Cooper would help the Democratic Party lead a socialist takeover of America.
“They want to bring socialism back,” Whatley said. “They want Christians to be under assault. They want your families to be under assault.”
That was in reference to Cooper refusing earlier this month to sign a pledge denouncing the left-wing group Democratic Socialists of America. Cooper’s campaign on Wednesday cited a Fox News article about that, which noted he hasn’t been endorsed by the DSA but also wouldn’t rule out working with the group. His campaign told Fox News at the time that “Roy is not a socialist, and he will work with anyone, including Republicans, as he has done his entire career.”
Trump’s own declining favorability in national and state polls, however, has also potentially affected candidates like Whatley who have associated themselves closely with Trump and his agenda. Many of Trump’s hallmark policies, such as tariffs and the war in Iran, have contributed to rising prices for consumer goods, groceries and gas. Whatley trails Cooper in fundraising and in the polls, as Cooper has focused his campaign almost entirely on affordability concerns.
“Republicans, Democrats, unaffiliated, they know something’s wrong,” Cooper said last week at a campaign stop in Goldsboro. “They know we need a course correction. There are so many people looking up at the middle class, thinking, ‘I’m never going to get there. Is the American dream dead?’”
Whatley told WRAL Wednesday he’s not concerned about Trump’s approval ratings. “President Trump has carried this state three different times because he’s fighting for a strong nation,” he said. “He’s fighting for a strong economy, he’s fighting for strong borders and safe kids, and he’s fighting to make sure America’s the strongest, most respected nation again around the world.”
Democrats on Wednesday argued that Whatley can’t be trusted to fight for consumer interests — particularly at the gas pump.
State Sen. Woodson Bradley, D-Mecklenburg, stood with Whatley critics outside a Circle K gas station in Gastonia and criticized the Republican nominee for supporting a Trump foreign policy agenda that has contributed to higher gas prices across the nation. Cooper has called for ending the war in Iran, but a Whatley spokesman told WRAL last week that Whatley supports the war.
Bradley alleged that Whatley isn’t motivated to pursue lower gas prices because he holds stocks in energy companies and previously worked as a lobbyist for the oil and gas industry. Whatley’s net worth is between $3.35 million and $10.44 million, much of it held in stocks of individual companies, largely in the energy industry.
“So if he’s advocating for policies that benefit his bottom line as a candidate, imagine how he could abuse that seat in the United States Senate, just to enrich himself at our expense and off of hardworking peoples’ backs,” Bradley said, adding: “we can’t afford a United States Senator who leaves us behind, drives up costs even more while he gets rich.”
Libertarian Shannon Bray and Green Party candidate Michael Dublin are also running for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who isn’t seeking reelection.
For months, polls have shown Cooper with a consistent lead over Whatley. A recent poll by Elon University found Cooper up on Whatley by 11% of the vote; another from East Carolina University found Cooper up 8%. A New York Times tracker of dozens of polls on the race show none has ever found Whatley in the lead.
Trump’s own approval ratings are on the decline in North Carolina and nationwide. Wednesday’s speech offers Trump a chance to remind people who voted for him before — but who may now be feeling less enthusiastic due to rising prices and health care cuts — why they supported him in the past, and to try to convince them to come out to the polls again this year to back Whatley.
Recent history has shown that a substantial number of Trump supporters don’t come vote in midterm elections when Trump isn’t personally on the ballot. State Sen. Brad Overcash, R-Gaston, urged the crowd of Trump supporters on Wednesday not to repeat that pattern again this year.
“President Trump’s name might not be on the ballot this time, but make no mistake about it: If Republicans and patriots don’t come out and vote just like President Trump was on the ballot, then he’s going to have a tough final two years,” Overcash said.
Trump agreed.
“Pretend on I’m on the ticket,” Trump told the crowd Wednesday. “Because essentially, I am. We’ve got to win this election.”
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