(The Center Square) – With early voting in his crowded primary starting next week, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley of North Carolina on Friday gave another lift to illegal immigration as a pivotal campaign issue.
Appearing in McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, where 1,000 people a day were coming into America from Mexico a year ago, Whatley’s three-minute pitch on Law Enforcement Appreciation Day noted a stabbing on the Charlotte light rail system in December and a Thursday bombshell report on CDLs from within the U.S. Department of Transportation. Saying choice of leadership matters, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee from Gastonia and his state’s Republican Party said policies of former president Joe Biden made North Carolina a border state.
“Joe Biden brought in between 15 to 20 million illegal immigrants,” Whatley said. “Captured here at the border, known to be felons, and released into the United States anyway. Those felons brought in drugs. They brought in migrant crime, and they made North Carolina a border state. Our former governor, Roy Cooper, welcomed them with open arms and allowed them to come into North Carolina.”
Cooper is the leading Democratic candidate for the seat being given up by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. He chose not to seek a third term.
On Monday, county boards of elections can begin fulfilling requests for absentee ballots. Fifty-one days later, Super Tuesday decides the candidates on the Nov. 3 ballot with Libertarian Shannon Bray of Angier.
To face off against Cooper, Whatley must first navigate past a half dozen Republican primary opponents – Charlotte’s Margot Dupre, Durham’s Richard Dansie, Waxhaw’s Don Brown, Smithfield’s Elizabeth Temple, Cary’s Michele Morrow and Garner’s Thomas Johnson.
Cooper, for his part, in the Democratic primary faces Jacksonville’s Daryl Farrow, Concord’s Justin Dues, Rocky Point’s Robert Colon, Wilmington’s Marcus Williams and High Point’s Orrick Quick.
Projections for the campaign spending could mean a Senate record-breaker. Republicans in statewide races for this decade – 2020, 2022 and 2024 – are 32-10 against Democrats, a party with significantly declining voter registrations for more than 20 consecutive years.
Republicans are 5-for-5 in U.S. Senate races since losing to the late Kay Hagan in 2008. Democrats chase back to 1998 for the last time winning a Senate seat at the midterms.
Whatley trails Cooper in polls and is without a past elected office record. Cooper’s record on immigration is clear – veto after veto of immigration policy, such as cooperation by the 100 county sheriffs with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“President Trump made it very clear that he was going to secure our border on Day 1 and he has done that,” Whatley said. “Look at the difference that one year makes. Fentanyl deaths are down; migrant crime is down – it is still an issue. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had a criminal illegal alien in North Carolina, who had been captured, who had been deported, who came back and was caught at the border and released in again, and went up to North Carolina and stabbed somebody on our light rail system.”
Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, 33, is charged in the incident Whatley referenced. Federal prosecutors say on Dec. 5 he was in Charlotte and stabbed a passenger in the chest on the city’s public transit system. Russ Ferguson, U.S. attorney in the Western District of North Carolina, said Solorzano-Garcia – with a conviction in New Jersey, a deportation following charges in Florida – had twice been deported and chose to return.
Whatley said issues remain, including Thursday’s report from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration saying 54% of nondomiciled CDL licenses in the state have been illegally issued.
“I’m very thankful that the Senate included $150 billion for border security in the One Big Beautiful Bill to provide men and women the resources they need for border patrol, to get them the equipment they need to be able to do it,” Whatley said. “But most importantly, I’m thankful for the men and women of the Border Patrol. I’m thankful that you wake up every single day and think about keeping our kids and our communities safe. The highest most important function for any government, whether it’s a state government, a local government or the federal government, is to keep our kids and communities safe.”
Prior to the press conference, Whatley toured the border area with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Republican Sens. John Barrasso of Idaho, John Cornyn of Texas, Jon Husted of Ohio, Ashley Moody of Florida, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, as well as Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers and members of the National Border Patrol Council.