Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley was in Waynesville over the weekend for a Haywood County Republican Party event.
The race between Whatley and his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Roy Cooper, is one of the few races that could decide control of the U.S. Senate in November.
Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, spoke to a crowd of about three dozen people at the Waynesville Recreation Center and described himself as a “conservative stickler” and criticized Cooper extensively.
“The people of North Carolina have been very vocal about what’s important to them: More jobs and better jobs. More money. Less taxes, fewer regulations. Safe children and communities,” Whatley said. “We want criminals behind bars, not on the streets like my opponent Roy Cooper threw them out.”
He did not mention Hurricane Helene in his remarks or answer questions from reporters.
The event was hosted by the Haywood County Republican Party. Kim Genova, the party’s chairwoman, said the GOP is aiming to increase its candidates’ vote totals in the 11th Congressional District by 10% over their performance in the last midterm election cycle in 2022.
“Elections are won with a few votes,” Genova said in an interview with BPR. “And if we take our candidates from the top to the bottom, and each of them gets 10% more votes than they did in the 2022 midterms, there is no doubt that every one of our Republican candidates will win.”
But that could prove difficult in a year when President Donald Trump and many of his key policy targets are deeply unpopular with voters. Most polls in the North Carolina Senate race show Cooper leading Whatley, although some suggest the race has become tighter in recent weeks.
Felicia Sonmez
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BPR News
The audience listens as Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley speaks at the Waynesville Recreation Center on Saturday, July 18, 2026.
Whatley urged viewers to vote in November and convince their friends and neighbors to do the same. But some attendees, like Bobbie Ammons of Nantahala, said concerns about alleged voter fraud bothered them.
“Well, is there any reason to vote if it’s all a scam?” she told BPR in an interview.
Steve Dean, who accompanied Ammons at the event, agreed.
“I mean, it’s really important because if people don’t trust that the system is fair, that can have very bad consequences,” Dean said.
Ammons and Dean are both independents — the largest voting bloc in North Carolina and a crucial group in the Senate race.
“Independents are a group that any candidate needs to pay attention to because they are likely to have the people in their own party,” Dean said. “So you have to appeal to people who are more flexible and more likely to go in one direction or the other.”
While Trump and leading Republicans have focused heavily on the issue of election integrity, widespread voter fraud was not found in the 2020 election — and some observers say the effort could actually backfire by discouraging some potential voters from going to the polls.
In a statement, the Cooper campaign defended the former governor’s record on public safety and criticized Whatley for his ties to sex offender Harvey West Jr.
“Roy spent his career putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars and signing harsh criminal justice laws as governor, while Michael Whatley spent his career appointing a convicted child molester who was in prison to an influential position within the North Carolina Republican Party,” Cooper’s campaign said.
The Senate race is expected to be among the most expensive in U.S. history. Some analysts are predicting total spending of up to $500 million. The latest fundraising figures released last week show Cooper raised $14.8 million in the second quarter of the year, compared to $5 million for Whatley.
https://www.bpr.org/politics-government/2026-07-20/whatley-addresses-dozens-of-wnc-supporters-as-money-flows-into-pivotal-senate-race
