Former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has increased his lead over Republican Michael Whatley, achieving a 50% approval rating among likely voters for the 2026 general election in a recent statewide Senate poll.
A poll from Carolina Journal Harper Poll surveyed 600 likely voters in North Carolina from May 10 to 11, revealing Whatley’s approval rating at 39%, compared to Cooper’s 50%. This poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points and a 95 percent confidence interval.
This marks Cooper’s largest lead in the trend line provided by Harper Polling. In earlier months, Cooper was ahead by four points in September 2025, eight points in March 2026, and 11 points in May 2026.
Additional polling from March 30, reported by Breitbart News, indicates Cooper’s advantage, with a Healthier United Nexus Strategies poll finding 50% of 800 registered voters favored him, while 32.3% chose Whatley, 4% supported Libertarian Shannon Bray, and 13.8% remained undecided. Among independent voters, Cooper garnered 48.8%, while Whatley received 25.5% of the independent vote.
Other polls, such as the March 22-23 Carolina Journal poll and a public policy poll from March 13-14, showed narrow margins, with Cooper at 49% versus Whatley at 41%, and 47% to 44%, respectively, putting both within the margin of error.
On May 8, it was reported that almost half of the 3,500 inmates released during Cooper’s administration in light of the coronavirus pandemic reoffended, with research from the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission suggesting a recidivism rate of 48%, higher than the 44% for about 13,000 inmates released in fiscal year 2021. Whatley claimed that Cooper let go of 51 individuals serving life sentences and “hundreds of violent criminals,” urging an explanation to the people of North Carolina. Additionally, an investigation found that over 600 individuals had committed felonies since their release, with 18 facing charges of murder.
