President Donald Trump took his midterm campaign to Gastonia, North Carolina on Wednesday, urging supporters at a rally at the municipal airport to "pretend I'm on the ticket" as he threw his weight behind Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley. The event marked Trump's first campaign rally since an unusual Republican midterm convention in Dallas last week, and underscored the pressure the party faces in a state where polls show Whatley trailing his Democratic opponent, former governor Roy Cooper.
Whatley, who served as chair of the Republican National Committee before Trump hand-picked him for the Senate race, is making his first bid for public office. The seat was opened by the retirement of Senator Thom Tillis, and Democrats see a rare opportunity: they have not won a Senate race in North Carolina since 2008, yet Cooper — who never lost a statewide race across four terms as attorney general and two as governor — is widely considered one of the strongest Democratic recruits of the cycle. For Democrats to take control of the Senate, they must flip at least four Republican-held seats, making North Carolina a critical battleground.
Trump lavished praise on Whatley as a "ball-breaker" and "one of the greatest men I ever worked with in government," while casting Cooper as a "radical" disguised as a moderate. He invoked the 2024 killing of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee stabbed on a Charlotte light rail train, falsely claiming Cooper had released the man charged with her murder from prison. Trump explicitly compared the attack to the infamous "Willie Horton" advertisement used in the 1988 US presidential campaign, a racially charged tactic used to portray a Democratic candidate as soft on crime. Local Democrats held a preemptive news conference, criticising Whatley's oil and gas investments and his support for Trump's military actions in Iran, which have driven up fuel prices.
The rally highlighted the balancing act facing Whatley and Republicans more broadly. North Carolina's electorate includes more than 3.5 million registered independent voters — outnumbering both registered Democrats and Republicans — and analysts say those voters are focused primarily on the economy, where the administration is on weaker ground. A Federal Reserve interest rate increase announced the same day, the first since 2023, added to that backdrop; Trump called the central bank "very hostile" and its officials "a bunch of politicians." Republican pollster Paul Shumaker, a veteran of North Carolina Senate campaigns, noted that independent voters "see the White House more focused on everything but the economy" and said that narrative must shift for Republicans to have a clear path to victory.
Republicans have outspent Democrats on the contest so far — more than 50 million dollars to roughly 35 million dollars, with pro-Trump PACs accounting for much of the gap. Yet Whatley continues to trail in fundraising from individual donors and in recent polling. Trump has promised dozens more campaign appearances before Election Day, betting that his loyal base can be converted into a broader electoral force even as voter frustration over inflation and the ongoing war in Iran complicates his party's prospects.