President Donald Trump launched the opening salvo in North Carolina’s midterm elections Friday night at a speech in Rocky Mount, blasting Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper as “radical left” and praising Republican Michael Whatley.
Speaking for more than an hour to a crowd of several hundred in Rocky Mount, Trump called Cooper a “disaster.” He condemned the former governor as weak on crime and blamed him for the painstaking recovery process in Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene.
“People were sitting in the mud, but I helped rebuild your state, and I didn’t get any help from the Democrats,” Trump said. “Not your governor, not your man who’s running for Senate against Michael Whatley — who’s phenomenal.”
The president invoked the death of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte who was fatally stabbed on the city’s Blue Line transit system this summer — blaming Cooper for policies that led to her assailant’s release. He also attacked Democrats over a subsequent stabbing on the same transit line earlier this month.
“He’s radical left, you don’t want him. He doesn’t represent you. Look at the crime — look at what’s going on with all the crime here,” Trump said. “You gotta get Michael Whatley. It’s gonna be so important, he was so great.”
In a statement after the rally, Jordan Monaghan, a spokesperson for the Cooper campaign, pointed to Cooper’s track record as the state’s attorney general as evidence of his public safety credentials.
“Roy Cooper is the only candidate who spent his career prosecuting violent criminals and keeping thousands of them behind bars as attorney general, and signing tough on crime laws and stricter pretrial release bail policy as governor,” Monaghan said.
The president focused heavily on the economy in his remarks, taking credit for its successes and laying blame for its failures on former President Joe Biden. He said since his inauguration, North Carolina has added 53,000 jobs, including 8,000 in construction. (Gov. Josh Stein said earlier this month that 33,000 jobs had been created in the state since January.)
Trump also declared the first year of his second term “the most successful year of any president in history,” pointing to recent successes negotiating lower drug prices, working to abate inflation, and growing jobs numbers to make the case that voters should elect a Republican majority in Congress once again in 2026.
According to government data released Thursday, inflation lowered from 3% in September to 2.7% in November, but economists told CNN that the drop was “likely the result of shutdown-related distortions of economic data.” Similarly the delayed jobs report this month, showed unemployment at 4.6%, the highest since September 2021.
“They’re the ones, of course, that caused the highest inflation in the history of our country, which led to the highest prices in the history of our country,” Trump said. “I inherited the mess.”
He later joked about media fact-checking of that statement, which he also made during a White House speech on Wednesday, telling the crowd he shouldn’t say in the history of the country — “It’s not the worst in history, it’s the worst in 48 years.” In fact, inflation under Biden reached a 40-year high, and prices have continued to rise under Trump.
At various other points in the long and winding speech, Trump attacked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), lamented the decline of North Carolina’s furniture industry, praised the passage of federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe, and touted his $1,776 “freedom dividend” for members of the armed forces.
Besides Trump, Whatley gave the longest speech of the night, laying into Cooper ahead of their anticipated 2026 midterm matchup.
“This is a man who over the course of his career has fought harder for criminals than he did victims,” Whatley said, criticizing Cooper for cashless bail and pretrial release policies. “We don’t need to reimagine law enforcement. We need to back the blue, and we need to enforce the law.”
Resist Hate Editor: Trump has pardoned over 150 criminals including insurrectionists who assaulted cops on January 6, 2021. (I can’t allow statements insinuating Trump and candidates he endorses are going to “back the blue” and enforce the law on Resist Hate with no pushback)
“We need you one more time,” Whatley said. “Because if the Democrats win the House, if the Democrats win the Senate, we are going to go right back to investigations and hoaxes and impeachments.”
Cooper, Whatley said, would provide a vote against Trump “every single time” if elected. “I’m gonna cast a vote for the America First agenda. I’m gonna cast a vote for you.”
But first, Whatley would have to win the crowded Republican primary. He faces Michele Morrow, who was the Republican nominee for NC Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2024, as well as Don Brown, an author and ally of former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Vouching for Whatley, Trump pointed to his performance running the president’s three campaigns in the state, as North Carolina campaign chair in 2016, state GOP chair in 2020, and Republican National Committee chair in 2024. “We won the state all three times, and it was like a rock.”
Trump also took aim at Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.), a top GOP target in 2026 after his district was redrawn to favor Republicans by 10 points, telling voters he “betrayed North Carolina” by supporting Biden’s policies.
“Don Davis voted against no tax on overtime. He voted against no tax on tips, and he voted for the largest tax increase in American history,” he said. “I’m good at politics — I’ve never even heard of this guy, so he hasn’t made a big impact.”
Davis said in a statement Saturday morning after publication of this article that his top priority remains improving the lives of North Carolinians.
“I welcome President Trump to join me in focusing on solutions that lower costs, protect healthcare, create jobs, open markets, and strengthen families and communities across eastern North Carolina,” he said.
Trump did not endorse any of the Republicans vying for the nomination to face Davis on Friday night, though several contenders, including Laurie Buckhout, state Sen. Bobby Hanig, and Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck were in attendance.
He shouted out Buckhout as being “unbelievable” since joining his administration to assist the Department of Defense with cyber policy.
Supporters of the president who attended Friday’s rally voiced skepticism about Cooper, though said they knew little about Whatley beyond Trump’s support for him.
“I don’t really know a lot about him other than I probably will vote for him,” said Chuck Herring, a voter from Wilson. He added that he would not be surprised if Cooper won the race because of his popularity as governor.
Wayne Lucas, a Trump supporter from Nash County, knows Cooper better than most others at the rally Friday — he and the former governor were a year apart at Northern Nash High School and even faced him in Little League baseball growing up.
“He was like a chest up taller than any other player,” Lucas said with a laugh. “He looked so [much] older that the coach had to keep his birth certificate with him.”
Lucas said he also expects to support Whatley in the election as he believes Cooper has gone too far to the left.
“He was raised by a Democratic family, but it was the moderate type,” Lucas said. “He’s still probably considered a moderate Democrat, but I think with the bureaucracy in Washington if he has to get into that, I don’t think he’ll be able to express his true values.”
This article was originally published by NC Newsline and republished here under a Creative Commons license.
