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MW Michael Whatley Michael Whatley Michael Whatley chaired the Republican National Committee from 2024 to 2025.

“We are closing right now in this race. We've knocked Roy Cooper's lead down from 12 points a couple of months ago to four points right now. We are in the chute, as I like to say. We always close late here in North Carolina. We are right where Ted Budd was back in 22. We're actually better than Tom Tillis was in 2020.”

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show · US Politics · September 2026

“We are closing right now in this race. We've knocked Roy Cooper's lead down from 12 points a couple of months ago to four points right now. We are in the chute, as I like to say. We always close late here in North Carolina. We are right where Ted Budd was back in 22. We're actually better than Tom Tillis was in 2020.” — Michael Whatley, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Context

Whatley described the state of the North Carolina Senate race to Clay Travis on The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show in late September 2026, roughly 40 days before the election. The figures are his own characterization of the polling.

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Transcript

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show Around 00:58 into the episode
Michael Whatley

…there, and Roy Cooper is absolutely crazy. This is a guy who wants open borders, inflationary spending, a woke, weak America. He raised taxes as a legislator, vetoed tax cuts as a governor. This is a guy who let criminals out of jail by the thousands and who supports a radical transgender ideology.

Speaker 4

He's completely out.

Michael Whatley

Of step with mainstream North Carolina. So that's the first thing we got to do is just make sure everybody understands what's at stake. And the second thing is Republicans close in North Carolina. We are closing right now in this race. We've knocked Roy Cooper's lead down from 12 points a couple of months ago to four points right now. We are in the chute, as I like to say. We always close late here in North Carolina. We are right where Ted Budd was back in 22. We're actually better than Tom Tillis was in 2020. And so we're just going to keep working out. We've been to all 100 counties. We're having conversations with people in the mountains and on the coast. We're talking to people in the cities. We're talking to people on the farms and everywhere we go. It's a common sense agenda for North Carolina.

Clay Travis

How's your money situation? What can people do to help? A lot of talk. I started off the show today that a lot of Republican candidates nationwide, it feels like have kind of kept the powder dry, so to speak. and not started really spending until post-Labor Day. We certainly are there now. What can…

Michael Whatley

Yeah, so Roy Cooper does have a ton of money. It's coming in from all over the country, California, Chicago, New York, you name it. He's bringing it in because Chuck Schumer has recruited him to run in this race because he'll do what exactly Chuck Schumer and the Democrats tell him to do. He's…

Speaker 4

We need to make sure that we keep that going.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

More from The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

“We have the most jobs and the lowest unemployment rate in our history.” — Jon Husted, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show “I'm not predicting that we're going to win by 25 or seven. There are other issues. It's a midterm election in which the Republicans are in charge, which makes it harder … But the numbers look good. And if Republicans get out to vote like they have done in the past, we will win.” — Jon Husted, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show