North Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Roy Cooper has sharply criticized his Republican opponent, Michael Whatley, accusing him of blindly following President Donald Trump. Speaking on the campaign trail, Cooper said, "Michael Whatley will do and say whatever this president tells him to do and say," adding that North Carolinians deserve an independent voice in the Senate.
The remarks have intensified the political battle in one of the country's most closely watched Senate races, with Trump’s influence once again becoming a central campaign issue.
Watch the full video for Roy Cooper’s comments, Michael Whatley’s role in the race, and the latest developments in the North Carolina Senate contest.
#RoyCooper #MichaelWhatley #DonaldTrump #NorthCarolina #SenateRace #USPolitics #Trump #Republican #Democrat #Election2026 #BreakingNews #PoliticalNews #USNews #OneIndiaNews #WorldNews
~HT.318~ED.420~PR.462~GR.508~VG.HM~
The remarks have intensified the political battle in one of the country's most closely watched Senate races, with Trump’s influence once again becoming a central campaign issue.
Watch the full video for Roy Cooper’s comments, Michael Whatley’s role in the race, and the latest developments in the North Carolina Senate contest.
#RoyCooper #MichaelWhatley #DonaldTrump #NorthCarolina #SenateRace #USPolitics #Trump #Republican #Democrat #Election2026 #BreakingNews #PoliticalNews #USNews #OneIndiaNews #WorldNews
~HT.318~ED.420~PR.462~GR.508~VG.HM~
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NewsTranscript
00:00Michael Watley will do and say whatever this president tells him to do and say.
00:06I don't think the people of North Carolina want a senator like that.
00:11Look, I'll work with this president when I can.
00:14I showed that during my first term.
00:23Well, welcome, Mr. Governor, down here.
00:29And I want to say once again, hello, everyone.
00:32My name is John David, and I serve as a region.
00:35I serve as a field organizer with the North Carolina Democratic Party Coordinators campaign.
00:40In the week since starting this job in this community, I've learned that the people in our communities are ready
00:47to help their neighbors,
00:48want to talk about the changes they want to see.
00:51I'm so happy to talk to you all about the ways of getting involved and making those changes.
00:58So what is this coordinated campaign?
01:00It's all of us working together across North Carolina to support Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.
01:08Instead of doing things separately, we move as one team so that conversation, every event, and every door we knock
01:16on builds towards something bigger.
01:19It allows us to reach more people, stay organized, make a real impact from local to federal, especially in communities
01:27like ours.
01:29For me, this work is personal.
01:31I grew up in a small rural community in Appalachia where my family were farmers, homemakers, person of faiths, persons
01:40who believed that all work had dignity.
01:42My mom just retired as a lunch lady in the elementary school system back home.
01:48My dad was a meat cutter at the local grocery store, and my sister is a teacher working with pre
01:54-K students.
01:56Growing up in a rural community, I learned the value of faith, family, hard work, and what it means to
02:02work with dignity.
02:03Work should put a roof over your head and food on your table.
02:08Today, it is even more expensive to afford the basics.
02:12In almost every conversation I've had with voters this year, people have mentioned the cost of living.
02:18People are struggling to pay for their groceries, their gas, their rent.
02:23I've seen people work hard every day and still feel like their voices are not heard.
02:30That's why we are here, to make sure North Carolina is seen, heard, and represented.
02:37And we can't do that alone.
02:40We need you all.
02:42We need volunteers.
02:44Whether it's knocking on doors, making phone calls, or attending events like this one.
02:49Right now, every conversation matters.
02:52You don't need experience.
02:54You just need to care.
02:56If you want to see real change here in your hometown across North Carolina, this is your moment to step
03:02in and to step up.
03:04At the top of the ballot this November is a man who has always fought for us.
03:15As Governor Roy Cooper worked to expand affordable health care for hundreds of thousands of working North Carolinians.
03:22He grew our economy, and he never forgot about rural communities.
03:28Roy Cooper knows the stuff just costs too much right now.
03:32Roy is running for U.S. Senate to make stuff cost less and deliver results for families.
03:38He's ready to take on big corporations that are making life way more expensive for the rest of us
03:44and ready to go to Washington, D.C. to be an independent fighter for North Carolina.
03:50Without further ado, our next U.S. Senator, Roy Cooper.
03:58Thank you very much.
04:01Hello, Anson County.
04:06Thank you, John David.
04:08Thanks to all of the volunteers who are here.
04:10Thank you for coming out today.
04:12Before I leave, I want to talk with every single one of you who want to talk with me
04:17to tell me what's going on, the things that are affecting your life right now.
04:22Take a picture if you want, and then let's go out and win this race, okay?
04:28You know, I'm running for the U.S. Senate for Kawana, who's a teacher in Durham,
04:36who's really struggling every single week to keep up with what her grocery bill costs.
04:42It seems like every week it's more and more.
04:46I'm running for Meredith, who has a child, Vivian, who is on Medicaid because Vivian has cerebral palsy.
04:54Meredith is scared to death that the people in Washington are going to attack and take away Vivian's health care.
05:03And we know that in the one big beautiful bill, the Medicaid cuts are scheduled to come in after the
05:10elections.
05:10So already, thousands of people have lost their health insurance, but there will be more to come unless we can
05:18stop it.
05:19I'm running for people like John, who owns a small business in Black Mountain.
05:24He's seeing his utility bill go through the roof, both at home and at his business.
05:31I'm running for Pender, who's a farmer, who's seeing the effects of these tariffs,
05:36and his fertilizer and his equipment are costing more.
05:40We need a senator who will go to Washington, who will pay attention to the people.
05:52We need a senator who understands that health care is a big problem,
05:57and that we need to make sure that we restore federal health care benefits to people.
06:04We need senators who will protect Social Security, which is critical.
06:12You know, we need a senator who will work to roll back these chaotic tariffs
06:18that are ending up costing everyday people and small businesses.
06:22That's the kind of senator that I want to be.
06:27And, guys, I have to admit to you is that I didn't know that I would be standing here
06:33because I left that governor's office in January of 2025, and I ripped off my tie,
06:38and I kicked off my dress shoes, and I put on my MJs,
06:43and I thought I'd do something else, maybe teach,
06:46but I saw two or three things begin to happen every single day
06:51when this administration took root,
06:54and I saw people hurting every day.
06:58And as I would sit in church on Sundays,
07:02I kept thinking about that verse from the book of Luke.
07:04Luke, to whom much is given, much is required, right?
07:10And I thought about all that I had been given in my life,
07:14starting with my mom and dad growing up in eastern North Carolina.
07:17My mom's a public school teacher.
07:19And even as governor, people would come up to me and say,
07:23I want to pay you a compliment.
07:24I think it's about me, and they say,
07:25your mama was the best teacher I ever had.
07:29Shows you the power of public education.
07:31It shows we shouldn't be, Washington shouldn't be eliminating the Department of Education,
07:37particularly with the federal money that we need to help children with disabilities.
07:42My dad was a small-town lawyer and farmer,
07:45made me work so hard on the farm every single summer until I went to college.
07:50And I learned hard work.
07:51I learned dedication.
07:53I learned that I really wanted a job with air conditioning when I grew up.
07:56And I'm grateful for that.
07:57And I'll tell you, when I ride down the road, I see people working in the field.
08:03When I see people working on the rooftops, it makes me remember those days.
08:08And it makes me even more determined to make sure that workers in North Carolina get paid fair wages.
08:21Because right now, there's too much month at the end of the money for too many North Carolina families.
08:29But I had those blessings of my parents.
08:32I had the blessings of getting a chance to serve as Attorney General.
08:37I had the blessing of practicing law in Rocky Mountain.
08:40I had my own law practice for 18 years and had to meet a payroll.
08:44I had the blessing in 2016, you all elected me your governor.
08:52And I got a chance to wake up every single day for eight years leading the state that I love
08:59with all of my heart.
09:01And I think about the good things that we've done.
09:04640,000 new good-paying jobs, expanded paid parental leave.
09:08We even got a Republican legislature, which I had all eight years.
09:13And look, we fought on some things.
09:15But we worked together to get things done on a bipartisan basis, like finally expanding Medicaid in North Carolina.
09:25And now 730,000 people have health insurance in this state.
09:29More than 2,000 of them living right here in Anson County, making a real difference in their life.
09:35And thinking about all of those blessings, and my last year as we had expanded Medicaid,
09:41we found that a lot of people were suffering from medical debt because either their insurance company would block a
09:50payment
09:50and they would owe money, or they didn't have health insurance and couldn't afford to pay the bill.
09:57And many people had civil judgments against them.
10:01When you have those, you can't get a credit card.
10:04You can't buy a house.
10:06Sometimes you can't even qualify for rent.
10:08And so we leveraged some federal money.
10:11We pulled all 99 of our hospitals together.
10:15And we agreed and created the largest medical debt relief program in the entire country.
10:25And so far, we've been able to wipe away $6.5 billion in medical debt for more than 2.5
10:33million North Carolinians.
10:35And as I've traveled the state, I've talked with a lot of people.
10:39And I had a woman named Mary come up to me the other day, and she said, I want to
10:43tell you something.
10:44I was between jobs.
10:46I didn't have health insurance.
10:47I got sick.
10:49$54,000 medical bill from the hospital, and they sued me, and I had a judgment against me.
10:55And I want to pay my debts, and I'm on a fixed income, but I was paying $80 a month.
10:59And she said, Governor, that may not sound like much to you, but it was important to my budget.
11:04And I paid it every month.
11:06But then I got this letter in the mail, and she had tears in her eyes.
11:10And she said, the letter said $54,000 had been wiped away.
11:16And she said, it changed my life.
11:19And I thought about all of the other people that we were able to help, and I thought about all
11:25of those blessings and the good things we've been able to do in thinking about what's happening in Washington and
11:31recognizing that all of it is at risk.
11:34And so thinking about to whom much is given, much is required, I knew what was required of me.
11:43That's why I'm a candidate for the United States Senate.
11:51Now, I did look at all of those committee chairs in Washington, and I thought, I might be a little
11:55young for this.
11:56But, hey, I'm ready.
11:59I'm ready to do this job.
12:03I need your help, though.
12:04This is going to be a tough race.
12:08We've got a lot of people in Washington who believe in keeping the status quo.
12:13There's so many people in Washington right now who just want to be something instead of wanting to do something.
12:20I want to do something.
12:24And you can go to RoyCooper.com, and you can see all of our policy proposals.
12:29You can sign up to volunteer.
12:31You can sign up to help us.
12:32We'd be grateful for that.
12:34But we know that a lot of money is going to come into this state, and they're going to try
12:39to convince the people of North Carolina that I'm someone that I am not.
12:43We just had a Supreme Court decision that is the worst campaign finance decision since Citizens United.
12:51They're going to be able to funnel a lot of money into North Carolina attacking us with lies.
12:57We have to be ready to set the record straight.
13:01I'll say something about my opponent.
13:04Michael Watley.
13:05Michael Watley is the former chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, recruiting stellar candidates like Mark Robinson.
13:14And that's a joke for those who don't know who he is.
13:18He was a lobbyist in Washington for more than a decade and represented big oil and utility companies in Washington,
13:31working to help utility companies raise their rates, working to help oil companies make more profits.
13:39He also was chair of the Republican national committee, and this president anointed him to be the candidate.
13:49Now, Michael Watley will do and say whatever this president tells him to do and say.
13:58I don't think the people of North Carolina want a senator like that.
14:02Look, I'll work with this president when I can.
14:05I showed that during my first term.
14:07I think we have to be ready to work across the aisle, but you've got to be ready to stand
14:12up, too.
14:13And right now, right now, we need to stand up.
14:19I'm going to be an independent senator, a strong senator, a senator who's going to put the people before power,
14:28the people before party, the people before politics.
14:33And I'm going to need your help to help us get that message out.
14:38I told my kids the other day that my parents left me a better country, but that we all have
14:45work to do to leave our kids a better country.
14:49I know you're here because you love North Carolina.
14:52You love your country.
14:53You love your communities.
14:54We've got elected leaders here, the sheriff.
14:57We've got county commissioners and city council members, and I'm grateful for your public service.
15:02I know there's a challenge of this community right now with water, and I want you to know that that
15:09is on the forefront of my interest.
15:11When I was governor, we worked to help provide more than $2 billion for aging water infrastructure.
15:17We need to do a lot more, and in Washington, I want to do a lot more to help communities
15:22like yours to get through times like these.
15:25But I'll tell you this, it is time for all of us to stand up and do whatever we can
15:32to make sure that we make this country the kind of country that we love and we know we can
15:39be.
15:40We know that stuff just costs too much for too many families.
15:44We know that there are ways to bring prices down and to make people's paychecks more than their cost.
15:52And as your senator, I'm going to work every single day to do that.
15:57Thank you for being here.
15:58Let's go win this thing.
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