Affordability and the cost of living have become defining issues in North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate race, as voters across the state grapple with rising household expenses. The campaign features Democrat Roy Cooper, the former two-term governor, and Republican Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee according to CNBC.
Affordability Emerges as Central Issue in North Carolina Senate Race
For many local residents, rising prices for everyday necessities have made basic household budgets increasingly tight. Rachel Wagoner of Concord described how climbing grocery and gasoline costs have squeezed her family’s finances, stating It gets harder and harder to make ends meet,
and noting that activities once considered routine have turned into luxuries. In nearby Kannapolis, mother Nichole Mattes said that rent, gasoline, and groceries leave her family living paycheck to paycheck.
Data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator estimates that two working parents with two children in the area need a combined annual income of $113,966 before taxes to cover basic expenses—roughly $25,000 more than the countywide median household income.
Campaign Messaging and Economic Arguments
The candidates have taken sharply contrasting approaches when addressing voters’ economic anxieties. Cooper has spent months campaigning under the slogan Make Stuff Cost Less.
At a campaign event, Cooper said, From the grocery store to the gas station, working families here in Concord and around the state are hurting as prices skyrocket.
Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, noted that both candidates recognize widespread public dissatisfaction. Both candidates know people are dissatisfied and feeling the squeeze,
Bitzer said. Cooper wants voters focused on what they are paying now. Whatley wants them to trace those costs through Cooper’s tenure in Raleigh and the inflation of the Biden years.
Suburban Shift in Cabarrus County
Cabarrus County and its Charlotte suburbs serve as a prime testing ground for how voters will respond to these competing economic messages, according to Christopher Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University. While the county remains Republican territory, its voting margins have shrunk considerably over the past decade. Donald Trump won Cabarrus by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016, but his margin fell to 9.5 points in 2020 and 7.6 points in 2024.
This political shift has coincided with outward growth from Charlotte, bringing more Democratic-leaning voting patterns into historically rural and exurban communities. Willie Brown, a six-year area resident, pointed to the construction of new apartment complexes as part of that ongoing influx.
Debates and Media Access in the 2026 Campaign
With less than two months remaining before the November elections, Cooper and Whatley have not yet agreed to a debate according to WUNC. Spectrum News and the N.C. Association of Broadcasters have both invited the candidates to participate in debates.
When asked about his debate plans, Whatley’s campaign pointed to a social media video where he stated he is happy to debate, though campaign spokesman D.J. Griffin declined to elaborate further in an email. Christopher Cooper noted that Roy Cooper faces few electoral incentives to debate, comparing his strategy to former UNC-Chapel Hill basketball coach Dean Smith’s Four Corners
approach to run out the clock and avoid potential campaign missteps.
Extended interviews with local TV, radio, and newspaper journalists have also been rare, with both campaigns occasionally limiting press access for certain news outlets.
