Texas primary just made NC Senate race even harder for Michael Whatley | Opinion
On Tuesday, the road to the U.S. Senate got even longer for Michael Whatley.
Yes, he easily won the Republican primary. But he earned a lot less of the vote than he should have in a race where he had no serious opposition, plus a Trump endorsement.
Whatley ended the night with less than two-thirds of the Republican vote, according to unofficial results. His closest opponent got more than 15% of the vote, despite not even reaching double digits in recent polls. Now he has to try to win those voters back. Whatley also only got a little more than half the raw number of votes that former Gov. Roy Cooper did in the Democratic primary — a sign that Republicans are trailing in enthusiasm heading into a competitive general election.
And across the country, another pair of U.S. Senate primaries brought potentially bad news for Whatley and North Carolina Republicans. James Talarico, a state lawmaker, appeared to win the Democratic nomination in Texas. Meanwhile, the Republican primary is headed to a runoff, as neither incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn nor state Attorney General Ken Paxton got 50% of the vote. That runoff will not be until May 26 — meaning Republicans will spend more than two months trying to out-MAGA each other while Democrats coalesce behind a nominee who will seek to make inroads with more moderate voters.
So what does this have to do with North Carolina? Well, with Talarico as the Democratic nominee, Texas will have a more competitive and more expensive general election, no matter which Republican ends up running against him. It will cost Republicans more money to defend that seat, which means less money to spend on Whatley here in North Carolina. Paxton is a weaker general election candidate than Cornyn, so if he wins the runoff, the seat would become even more expensive to defend. And that’s on top of the tens of millions of dollars Republicans have already been forced to spend defending Cornyn in an unnecessarily tough primary that he may not even win. It’s a situation that Republicans really hoped to avoid.
In order for Whatley to win in November, he needs money. A lot of it, because not only do North Carolina voters love Roy Cooper, many of them don’t even know who Michael Whatley is. Of course, as the former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, Whatley is pretty good at fundraising himself. But if Republicans are forced to go all-in on Texas, how much money will be left for a North Carolina race that at this point isn’t looking very competitive?
The general election is still a long way away, and Whatley’s fate is obviously far from sealed. But some Republicans are already worried about Whatley’s ability to beat Cooper, and tonight certainly didn’t do his doubters any favors. It just puts more obstacles on a path that’s already full of them.
Deputy Opinion Editor Paige Masten is covering the 2026 elections for The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer.
This story was originally published March 4, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
