‘I’m working like a dog’: Trump rallies in North Carolina against Roy Cooper amid midterm blitz 

President Donald Trump rallied in North Carolina on Tuesday for Senate candidate Michael Whatley, painting Democrat Roy Cooper as soft on crime and expressing hope for GOP chances in the midterms.

Cooper, the state’s former governor, and Whatley, former chair of the Republican National Committee, are in a race to fill Sen. Thom Tillis’ seat. Tillis announced he was retiring last year, a day after Trump publicly attacked him for opposing his “One Big Beautiful Bill” and threatened to back a Republican primary challenger against him.

An Elon University poll released Tuesday indicated Cooper has a 13% lead over Whatley, with 52% of likely voters favoring Cooper while only 39% favor Whatley. Trump has routinely dismissed negative polling during his midterm rally tour, calling polls “fake.”

In early October, the Senate Leadership Fund, the top super PAC for Senate Republicans, canceled its remaining ads in the state and shifted tens of millions of dollars away from the race, The New York Times reported. The move, which was followed by an investment in the Kansas elections, was widely seen as a signal that party leaders don’t view North Carolina’s race as a winning one.

Trump’s visit to the state, though, as well as his comments at the rally, indicates he may be optimistic: “Early voting in North Carolina is already underway,” he said. “Nov. 3 is the big day, and I look so forward to that evening. I just think we’re going to do great. I just feel it.”

‘Working like a dog’

Trump is on a seven-day, seven-state blitz as part of his larger midterm campaign to visit states across the country as he encourages Republicans to vote. This week, he visited Kansas and North Carolina and will hold rallies in South Carolina, Iowa, Florida, Georgia and Michigan in the coming days.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Heartlander News that Trump is “laser-focused on maintaining Republican majorities in Congress this November,” touting his tax cuts, lower drug costs, border security and falling violent crime. The choice, Ingle said, is between Trump’s agenda and “the Democrats’ extreme liberal policies and obstruction.”

RNC spokeswoman Emma Hall said Trump was rallying “with voters who want Michael Whatley cutting taxes, slashing violent crime and putting North Carolina first.”

“Unfortunately for the Democrats, they are stuck defending soft-on-crime hack Roy Cooper after he released murderers, rapists and predators,” she added.

Trump, speaking at the rally, touted his nationwide midterm blitz, telling voters, “I’m working like a dog” to shore up votes with just two weeks until Election Day.

“I’ve done about 10 rallies in about eight days,” he said, adding that he thinks he is scheduled to return to North Carolina in another week. “We have like 15 days, and I’m doing about 18 rallies.”

Turning to the Senate race, Trump unleashed a tirade of insults against Cooper, calling him “a disgrace to the state” and labeling him a “liberal schmuck,” a “super liberal sociopath” and a “super liberal fool.”

“He betrayed his highest and most sacred duty as your governor to keep North Carolina safe,” Trump said. “This guy should not be allowed to be a senator.”

“Cooper released over 3,500 convicted high-line criminals,” including convicted murderers, rapists and child predators, he added, “all because he didn’t want them to catch Covid while in jail.”

Cooper “conducted a massive jailbreak and put your lives at risk” during his time as governor, Trump said.

Trump told the crowd he himself is “on the ballot” in a way because “they want to do away with all of the tremendous things we’ve done, the tax cuts, the border.”

As part of a larger effort to put economic wins front and center before the midterms, Trump called Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick onto the stage to announce a new investment to boost semiconductor production in the state.

“Sibelco is going to build silicon manufacturing – it’s quartz manufacturing – it’s basically the foundation of semiconductors, and they’re going to build it right here in North Carolina,” he said. “Hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Election will be a ‘fork in the road’

Whatley’s plan if he wins the race includes enacting “the Trump agenda” in the Senate, fighting against illegal immigration, securing an “America First economy” and making “North Carolina safe again,” according to his campaign platform.

The election is a “fork in the road” between “the road of common sense” and Cooper, Whatley said at the rally, joining Trump onstage. He accused the former governor of wanting to tax tips, Social Security and overtime. “He’s never seen a tax he didn’t want to raise. I’ve never seen a tax I didn’t want to cut.”

Cooper vetoed the Parents’ Bill of Rights and vetoed legislation to “prohibit transgender mutilation surgeries on kids” and to “keep boys out of girls sports,” Whatley added.

A spokesperson for Cooper’s campaign told Heartlander News that “Cooper is the only candidate with plans to make stuff cost less while Michael Whatley led the charge to give billionaires handouts that doubled people’s health care premiums, pushed for policies that spiked his own stocks and lobbied for big utility companies including Duke Energy as people’s electric bills went through the roof.”

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/WCNC)