RALEIGH – About six in 10 North Carolina Senate voters said Republican Michael Whatley was “too supportive” of President Donald Trump, according to findings from The AP Voter Poll released after Democrat Roy Cooper won the race.
AP’s nationwide post-election analysis, published Nov. 4, said North Carolina voters who gave that assessment backed Cooper. The survey records attitudes and reported vote choices; it does not establish that one opinion caused any individual ballot.
The Voter Poll was conducted by SSRS for The Associated Press and major television news organizations. Outside Alaska, interviews with registered voters ran from Oct. 22 through Election Day on Nov. 3. AP says the project combines probability-based and non-probability-based interviews, verifies pre-election respondents against voter files and includes in-person Election Day interviews at selected polling places.
AP reported a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 0.6 percentage points for the full national sample. Its public analysis did not provide a North Carolina Senate subgroup sample size or state-specific margin of error. The “about six in 10” finding therefore should not be read as an exact percentage of every North Carolina voter.
The result fits documented campaign context, but it is not the same measurement as earlier pre-election polls. Whatley’s campaign biography described him as Trump’s endorsed Senate candidate. An October WRAL/WSOC poll by SurveyUSA found 60% of likely North Carolina voters disapproved of Trump’s job performance and 37% approved.
That WRAL/WSOC survey was conducted Oct. 7-11 among 643 respondents who had already voted or said they were likely to vote. It reported a five-point credibility interval. The survey also showed Cooper leading Whatley, but it was completed weeks before Election Day and should not be treated as a substitute for the later AP findings.
The AP Voter Poll finding adds post-election evidence about how voters viewed Whatley’s relationship with Trump. It does not show that every Cooper voter shared that view or isolate Trump support from other factors, including costs, candidate evaluations and turnout.
Sources
- Associated Press: Nov. 4 AP Voter Poll analysis
- Associated Press: Voter Poll methodology
- WRAL: Oct. 13 North Carolina Senate and Trump approval poll context
Photo Credit: File photographs: Roy Cooper, Durham, April 9, 2026, by NetwonsBucket; Michael Whatley, Las Vegas, Aug. 30, 2026, by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons. Both CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped, resized and combined; photographic adaptation shared under the same license. NCPN logo is a separate brand mark.
Editor’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.