--- title: Republicans, What More Do You Need? - June 25, 2026 description: Roy Cooper holds a 14‑point lead over Michael Whatley. Why are 1 in 4 Republicans still refusing to back their own Senate nominee? canonical_url: https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/republicans-what-more-do-you-need-june-25-2026 language: en-US date: 2026-06-25T10:38:33Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/republicans-what-more-do-you-need-june-25-2026. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 1523 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/republicans-what-more-do-you-need-june-25-2026. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. ![GOP Elephant with Question Mark - Why Republicans?](https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/images/daily_update/2026/june/june25/jun252026-article.png) Republicans – what more do you want? This is the Wilmington Standard Daily Update for Thursday, June 25, 2026. [A recent poll released](https://www.thecentersquare.com/north_carolina/article_f27b8b01-8b11-445d-a007-a317005001d1.html) by Catawba University shows that former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is still leading Michael Whatley in the race for US Senate. Mr. Whatley is trailing Governor Cooper by 14 points. There are two interesting aspects of this latest poll. The first is that despite a war in Iran that resulted in increased gas prices that effected other goods as well – Governor Cooper’s poll numbers have not changed. As [Nick Craig pointed out](https://www.thenickcraigshow.com/346) last week, Democrats seemed to have hit a glass ceiling in their polling numbers. The fact that Governor Cooper has not increased his lead in the midst of an unpopular conflict in the Mideast is not insignificant. The other interesting – and frankly disappointing – insight from this poll is the number of Republicans who are still on the fence about the former chairman of the state and national party. [According to the poll](https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/north-carolina-news/election-2026-no-change-in-coopers-14-point-lead-in-catawba-poll): 72% of Republicans chose Whatley to 10% for Cooper and 15% undecided In other words, if the election were held today, 1 out of 4 Republicans probably would not vote for their own party’s candidate. That is disgraceful. Roy Cooper’s last 2 years in office was a time [spent seeing every veto](https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-nikki-and-reuel-podcast-experience/episode-2-ted-davis-on-hurricane-relief-and-election-accountability) of his overridden by the Republican majority. From opposing school vouchers and reasonable restrictions on abortion to supporting boys going into girls locker rooms and allowing children to get body parts cut off to letting hardened criminals go free because of a flu, Roy Cooper has repeatedly demonstrated that he is a Democrat’s Democrat – and will implement a liberal, far-left agenda if given the chance. There is no reason whatsoever that the Republican candidate for US Senate has to be working this hard to convince his own party to vote for him. While analysis of the poll suggests that [President Trump’s low approval](https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article316233438.html) rate in our state may be dragging Mr. Whatley’s numbers down, it also demonstrates that Republicans still have not learned the most basic lesson of politics: that the best of Democrats – and Governor Cooper is far from the best – is worse than the worst of Republicans. As of today, Republicans have just under 19 weeks to figure that all out. For the Wilmington Standard, I’m Reuel Sample. Thanks for listening. ```json { "@context": "http://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "author": { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#reuel_sample_e0470786cd" }, "dateModified": "2026-06-25T10:38:33Z", "datePublished": "2026-06-25T08:57:14Z", "description": "Roy Cooper holds a 14‑point lead over Michael Whatley. 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