Cooper, other Democrats head into final stretch with millions more in the bank than GOP opponents

Democrats have a distinct financial edge over Republicans in several key races across North Carolina as Election Day nears, giving party leaders hope they can flip seats in an effort to retake control of Congress and gain power in other legislative bodies.

In the U.S. Senate race atop the ticket, Democrat Roy Cooper reported having nearly as much money still left to spend as of the end of September as his Republican opponent, Michael Whatley, has spent in the entire election combined, according to campaign financial reports filed to the Federal Elections Committee. Election Day is Nov. 3. 

Entering October, Cooper had raised $47.2 million and had $12.5 million still on hand, the FEC records show. Whatley had raised $13.4 million, with $916,000 still on hand as of Sept. 30.

Money is critical in campaigns. It can buy ads and mailers, helping candidates get out messages about themselves or their opponents and convince swing voters to back them. It can also pay for staffers to go door-to-door, trying to convince people to vote. And it can fund events and rallies designed to inspire voters or reach audiences that other methods might not.

It’s not uncommon for Democratic candidates to outperform Republican candidates in head-to-head fundraising. Republicans typically make up the difference with outside support from political action committees and other third-party groups that, unlike the candidates themselves, can receive unlimited sums of money — and which are often heavily funded by billionaires who favor GOP candidates for their tax policies.

But that hasn’t happened this year to the same extent as usual. One of the main conservative PACs is the Elon Musk-funded Senate Leadership Fund, or SLF. It diverted tens of millions of dollars out of North Carolina to spend on defending Republican incumbents in states including Iowa and Texas instead.

Whatley has trailed Cooper by a wide margin in numerous polls, including a poll released last week by WRAL and WSOC showing 54% of likely voters favoring Cooper and 40% favoring Whatley.

Outside money leaving NC

Republican President Donald Trump’s plummeting favorability numbers are part of the reason why Republican groups such as the SLF have refocused efforts to Republican seats in more conservative states rather than focusing on toss-up states such as North Carolina. The recent WRAL-WSOC poll showed only 37% of likely voters in November approve of Trump’s handling of the presidency since returning to office nearly two years ago.

In the spring, SLF pledged to spend more than $70 million boosting Whatley in North Carolina, WRAL reported at the time. But in the end it spent less than half that total before seeking to invest the remainder in states where the margins were tighter.

Whatley’s poor fundraising numbers, combined with that loss of outside help, forced his campaign to change its strategy; Whatley ended his own television ads early in October. Whatley said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday that his campaign is focusing its remaining money on other types of spending.

“We have moved some of our spending around — to go to digital [ads], to go to streaming, instead of just [television],” Whatley said. “But we’re out there. I’ve been to all 100 counties. … We’re working very hard every day to make sure voters of North Carolina know the contrast we’re talking about.”

Democrats aren’t viewing their big cash advantage as an automatic victory for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat, however.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin told WRAL that his party is hoping to use Cooper’s momentum to also push Democrats over the line in two U.S. House seats that in any other year might be seen as deep-red, but which could flip blue in 2026 — including northeastern North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District seat held by Democratic Rep. Don Davis, which Republican state lawmakers redrew last year to make it easier for a GOP candidate to win. 

“They thought in the redistricting, that they were going to draw Don Davis out of his seat — and he's essentially tied or ahead in that seat right now,” Martin said in an interview Friday. “All things equal, if we do our work the next 19 days, I think we could have a great night in North Carolina.”

Democrats are hoping to also have a good showing in the state’s 11th Congressional District in western North Carolina, Martin said. In that race, Democrat Jamie Ager is facing Republican Jennifer Baucom, who was added to the ticket in August after Republican U.S. Rep Chuck Edwards dropped out of the race following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.

Like Cooper, those two Democratic candidates in those competitive House seats — Ager and Davis — are ahead of their Republican challengers in fundraising.

US House fundraising

Davis has raised $5.6 million and still had $2 million to spend in the final month of the campaign.

He has among the most conservative voting records of any Democrat in Congress — more conservative than even a handful of Republicans, according to one metric, WRAL previously reported — and has used much of the money in large part to tell local voters he won’t vote to let transgender girls play girls sports, an issue that resonates with socially conservative voters. Many of the GOP’s anti-Davis ads also focus on transgender issues, telling voters he’ll side with far-left members of Congress.

His opponent, Republican Laurie Buckhout, is the same challenger Davis defeated in 2024 in what was then a less conservative version of the district. So far this year, her campaign has raised $4.6 million — most of it in the form of personal loans from Buckhout herself. She went into October with $1.9 million left to spend.

In western North Carolina, Ager — whose grandfather Jamie Clarke represented western North Carolina in Congress in the 1980s — has raised $5.4 million for his campaign this year and still had $1.6 million left to spend heading into October.

Balkcom, a Republican state legislator from Hendersonville, is trailing far behind Ager in part because of the late start in fundraising due to Edwards’ recent exit from the race. So far Balkcom has raised only $355,000. She had spent very little of it before October, heading into the final month of the election with $295,000 still in the bank.