By Jarrett Renshaw
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, Sept 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will campaign in North Carolina on Wednesday for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, his first major campaign stop since the Republican Party's midterm convention as he begins a nationwide effort to make the 2026 elections a referendum on his presidency.
The visit comes as Trump seeks to help Whatley, a longtime Republican operative who previously chaired the Republican National Committee, close a polling
gap against former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.
Trump remains a powerful force with the Republican base, but Whatley will also need to win over North Carolina's large bloc of swing and unaffiliated voters as Republicans confront rising concerns over affordability that have strained Trump's support among more moderate voters.
Trump told Republicans at the convention in Dallas last week to "pretend that I'm on the ballot," even though he is not seeking election. He has vowed to make multiple campaign stops in battleground states and districts ahead of the November 3 elections.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the past week found Trump's approval rating at 35%, up from a record-low 33% in the previous poll. Democrats led Republicans 44% to 37% on the generic congressional ballot, the widest Democratic advantage in the Reuters/Ipsos series since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
Fuel prices have added to the affordability challenge. The national average for regular gasoline was $4.33 a gallon on Tuesday, while diesel reached a record $6.27, according to AAA.
The North Carolina Senate race is open after Republican Senator Thom Tillis decided not to seek reelection amid a squabble with Trump that doomed his chances within the party. Cooper led Whatley 49% to 38% among likely voters in a recent Elon University poll, while 54% of North Carolina voters in the survey disapproved of Trump's job performance and 31% approved.
The White House signaled that Trump will use the North Carolina event to highlight his administration's record on crime, a recurring theme in Whatley's campaign.
Whatley has work to do consolidating voters who backed Trump in 2024. An August Elon University poll found that 72% of voters who said they backed Trump supported Whatley, while 10% backed Cooper and 14% were undecided. Cooper, by comparison, was capturing 93% of voters who said they voted for Kamala Harris.
"Trump wins roughly three points in '24, largely because those independents decided that he was going to be better at handling the economy than Harris," said Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll and a political science professor. "But he's disappointed them. They're not saying the economy is going great, and oftentimes they're pointing to his policies as reasons for it."
Unaffiliated voters account for roughly 40% of North Carolina's registered electorate, making them the state's largest registration bloc.
"It's mathematically impossible to win the state without winning unaffiliated voters," said veteran Republican strategist Paul Shumaker, a former adviser to Tillis. "We Republicans have to understand that we have to address the affordability issue, and we have to be able to put unaffiliated voters' minds at ease as it relates to the economy and affordability between now and November for the Senate race to remain in play."
Democrats are seeking to make the race a referendum on Trump and his policies.
"Whatley has tied himself to Trump and, given the polls, I would not be doing that," said North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Anderson Clayton.
(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; editing by Donna Bryson and Lincoln Feast.)
