RALEIGH, N.C. (NCN News) – Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper is leading former Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley by over a dozen points in the race for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat, according to a new poll released Tuesday. A Catawba-YouGov survey found 48% of likely voters said they prefer Cooper to 34% for Whatley.
Catawba College professor Michael Bitzer spoke with WPTF News on Wednesday. He said, “I think midterm elections tend to be referendums on the president’s party, and if the president is in high disapproval numbers, I think that translates to the president’s candidate.”
Bitzer added that the other key dynamic is that there was a high level of respondents to the poll who just don’t know Whatley, and therefore didn’t choose him.
“I think there’s kind of a combination – the candidate is not known but there could also be a penalty for being the president’s party’s candidate,” Bitzer concluded.
Other polls this month by Carolina Journal, Healthier United and Carolina Forward have also found Cooper leading Whatley, but by much smaller margins.