(The Center Square) – Democrat Roy Cooper, for the second time in five days, has increased his lead on Republican Michael Whatley to 49%-42% in a poll reflecting North Carolinians’ choice for the U.S. Senate on Nov. 3.
Monday’s poll from Carolina Forward, in conjunction with Change Research, was a sampling of 957 likely general election voters taken May 4-8. The margin of error is +/- 3.3%.
Cooper's lead from the same pollster in January was 5%.
On Thursday, Cooper led Whatley 49.8%-38.7% in polling by Carolina Journal in conjunction with Harper Polling. That poll sampled 600 likely voters May 10-11 and offered a +/- 4% margin of error.
Libertarian Shannon Bray is also on the ballot. The candidates are trying to succeed Sen. Thom Tillis, the second-term Republican who declined to seek a third term.
Republicans have 53 of the 100 seats in the chamber, and the purplish Old North State is viewed nationally as pivotal to the winning majority. It is one of nine battlegrounds for the 33 seats in play for the midterms, 20 occupied by the Grand Old Party and 13 by Democrats.
Cooper, from Raleigh, is a former two-term governor and four-term attorney general. Whatley, from Gastonia, is former chairman of both the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party.
Cooper is campaigning on an economic record – arguably enabled by Republican policies that began to shift the state in 2011 – and job growth; healthcare protection inclusive of his desire to expand Medicaid; and says he’s bipartisan in approach to issues rather than an ally to a particular person or party.
Whatley is clear that, as he advocated for second-term Republican President Donald Trump leading the RNC, he is aligned with the “true America first” policy agenda. He also regularly stumps on border security and immigration; and lays great blame to Cooper in both of his roles as governor and attorney general for an approach that is “soft on crime.”
In the lone state Supreme Court seat polling, incumbent Democratic Justice Anita Earls leads state Rep. Sarah Stevens, R-Surry, 44%-40%.
In January polling by Carolina Forward, Cooper led Whatley 47%-42% and Stevens led Earls 42%-41%.
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