Republican Michael Whatley officially kicked off his campaign for U.S. Senate Thursday against Democrat Roy Cooper with an 18-minute speech Thursday near his home in Gastonia.
I listened three times and made some notes. This Inside Politics will look at the words he did and didn’t use, offering a preview to what’s going to be the most expensive Senate campaign ever.
And get used to these words, because between now and November 2026, you’re going to hear them approximately 1 million times in campaign ads.
So, here are some of the big themes in Whatley’s speech, by the numbers:
President Trump: I counted 10 references in which Whatley directly mentioned the president. He thanked him less than one minute into this speech, and made sure the audience knew he is close to the president, noting that he was with him on Election Night and that he had the president’s “complete and total endorsement."
Trump has won North Carolina three out of three times. Whatley — who is the chairman of the Republican National Committee — will hold him as close as possible.
Immigration/secure borders: Whatley mentioned this nine times in various forms during the speech. It took different forms, talking about the need for secure borders; the need to ban so-called sanctuary cities; or Democrats wanting to “get rid of” Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Polls have shown Americans are concerned about Trump’s aggressive deportation of people who are in the country illegally. But they still show people trust Republicans more than Democrats on immigration.
Expect a heavy dose of immigration for the next 15 months, though Whatley might continue to sidestep Trump’s deportation of people without criminal records.
Roy Cooper was mentioned seven times. The former governor has never lost an election. He won twice even when Trump won the state. Whatley will try to paint him as just another progressive, and tie him to national issues.
Speaking of national issues, Joe Biden was mentioned at least five times. And other national Democrats got at least one shout out: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Zohran Mamdani, Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, Tim Walz and Kamala Harris.
“Radical gender ideology”: Whatley never said the word “transgender.” But he went back to the theme of Democrats promoting “radical gender ideology” three times, saying that Cooper didn’t “keep boys out of girls’ sports.”
He did not mention GOP laws to prohibit minors from using puberty blockers and, in some cases, surgeries to transition to a different gender.
Those are the themes Whatley played up. Here’s what was downplayed:
Big Beautiful Bill: This is Trump’s name for his signature piece of legislation, which polls have shown to be unpopular. Whatley said those three words just once. He did point out more popular parts of the bill, such as no taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security. He also praised tariffs (which could be a hit in a state like North Carolina that’s seen industries like textiles decimated by overseas competition).
Medicaid overhaul: Republicans like to say the Big Beautiful Bill reformed Medicaid. Democrats (and N.C.GOP Sen. Thom Tillis) say it was slashed and hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians will lose medical coverage.
Whatley never said the word Medicaid.
COVID-19 restrictions: Cooper’s restrictions happened five years ago, but are still a big issue for conservatives. But they didn’t make the cut in Whatley’s speech. They got zero mentions.
Whatley did mention Cooper “marching with Antifa” in 2020 during protests against police violence.
Election integrity: This was also a big zero. It wasn’t mentioned once.
Whatley’s speech came three days after Cooper formally entered the race with a 2-minute, 20-second video.
Cooper’s video was much shorter, so it’s difficult to compare. But Cooper did not mention Trump once. In fact, he didn’t mention any politician by name.
The quick video focused on several overall themes: “Corporations grabbing wealth at your expense,” “the next election will determine if we have a middle class,” “politicians are running up debt … putting Medicare and Social Security at risk.”
Whatley also talked about general themes such as keeping North Carolina safe, keeping inflation low and supporting the military.
Emerson College released a poll Friday showing Cooper ahead in the race with 47%. Whatley had 41% and 12% were undecided.
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