Election 2026: Trump compares Cooper in ’21 to Dukakis in ’88, backs Whatley

“Roy Cooper, likewise, has disgraced North Carolina, and disqualified himself from public office,” Trump wrote a few hours before midnight. “Michael Whatley is the man for the job.”

Voting started in a 61-day window, the nation’s longest, when requested absentee ballots were mailed out Sept. 4. In-person early voting begins Thursday and runs through Oct. 31, and Election Day is Nov. 3.

This U.S. Senate seat has long been viewed as a major player nationally in the quest for a majority in the chamber. Republicans have 53 seats today. Thirty-five seats are on the ballot, two of which are special elections.

In no particular order, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Maine, Iowa, New Hampshire, Alaska, Texas and Montana have been considered the other top battlegrounds. Democrats’ momentum has brought Kansas into the picture and changed the outlook on both North Carolina and Georgia, while Republican momentum has changed the outlook in Montana.

In the last two weeks, the super PAC Senate Leadership Fund has reportedly paused $71 million in advertising campaign spending for Whatley’s campaign to help elsewhere in the country. There is a report of Old North Action canceling $6.5 million in advertising reservation funding.

Trump’s post was hooked on Cooper’s litigation settlement in February 2021 with the NAACP and the ACLU. The action during COVID-19 didn’t include names made public at the time; outgoing Republican state Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, helped make that possible in February this year.

The settlement plan – questioned directly if it was a regret, Cooper on the campaign trail says the court ordered it and relieved himself of any responsibility – was to release inmates who had not committed crimes against other people; were pregnant; were scheduled to be released in 2021; and were planned to be granted early release to those on track for parole.

CooperReleasedHim, a website originated by journalist Stephen Horn, found among those released were 70 convicted for murder, 99 convicted for rape, and 203 convicted of felony child sex crimes.

The New York Post reported this summer 18 went on to be charged with murder.

Trump’s post said in part, “I have just learned that Roy Cooper, the radical left former governor of North Carolina, let out 83 murderers from prisons and penitentiaries around the state, with 51 of these prisoners serving life sentences. They ended up committing 25 murders immediately after being released, and Roy Cooper’s reputation will never be the same. He is a total fraud.

“The reason for releasing them, believe it or not, was because Governor Cooper didn’t want them to catch COVID while in prison.”

Trump tied in the Charlotte light rail homicide of Iryna Zarutska. DeCarlos Brown Jr. is charged with murder in the case, his 15th time arrested.

Cooper’s campaign says he wasn’t on the list and that he was released earlier. His opponents say the settlement terms allowed that earlier release to make him among those counted in order to satisfy the number required. Either way, the cashless bail system – in respective majorities, Democrats are for it and Republicans against it – in place in January 2025 allowed him to go free after a 14th arrest.

“What Roy Cooper has done is worse than former Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts releasing the infamous Willie Horton, previously convicted of murder, who went on to kidnap, rape and murder again after Dukakis gave him a release and pardon,” Trump wrote. “This terrible decision by Dukakis, who had an insurmountable lead in the presidential election of 1988, led to his resounding and conclusive defeat.

“North Carolina, vote for Michael Whatley. He has my complete and total endorsement for the United States Senate, and will never let you down.”