What to watch in the race for North Carolina's open Senate seat

February 23, 2026·18 min·1 clip

When Trump endorsed Michael Whatley for North Carolina's Senate seat, every other Republican candidate immediately dropped out of the race.

North Carolina voting has already started. Miles Parks opens with Ashley Lopez and Colin Campbell, then asks who is actually on the ballot in the open Senate race created by Tom Tillis's decision not to seek reelection. The early field starts with Michael Whatley, the Trump-endorsed Republican, former RNC chairman and North Carolina party leader now making his first elected-office run outside party leadership. Roy Cooper is the main Democrat in view. Campbell describes Cooper as a familiar former governor, recently out of office after two terms, likely to be the Democratic candidate, and someone Democrats hope can finally get them over the line in a Senate race. Turnout becomes the thread running through the episode. Ashley Lopez points to special elections, primaries, and governorships where Democrats and independents seem more motivated because they dislike the country's direction. Immigration is harder terrain than it used to be. The panel treats it as an issue that has helped Republicans for a long time, but what happened in Minneapolis has made it riskier. Parks brings back Lopez's focus group because the detail matters here: a majority of participants said ICE activity had affected daily life. Campbell brings that home to North Carolina. He describes about a week of Border Patrol and ICE activity last fall in Charlotte, agents moving toward Raleigh-Durham, immigrant-related businesses closing, and construction sites pausing for a few days. That leaves the middle messy. Some voters may want stronger borders and a better enforcement system, Campbell says, while still pulling back from what they have seen nearby. Whatley's problem is Trump. Because his candidacy is so closely tied to the president, the panel asks whether he can separate himself over the next eight months. The race also has a procedural edge. The closing note points to election rules now handled in ways that may help Republicans, after cycles when Democrats controlled those calls.

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