By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
President Trump campaigned in North Carolina for Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman now running for Senate, using the stop to hammer Democrats on crime, according to NBC News. Whatley faces former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in a race both parties regard as pivotal to which party holds the Senate majority.
The visit was not without friction. CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes spoke with Whatley ahead of the president's appearance about pushback he's gotten locally — a North Carolina farmer's criticism of tariffs and gas costs, grievances that cut against the campaign's preferred message and point to a rougher patch of ground for Republicans in farm country than the crime-focused stump speech might suggest.
The race sits alongside several other contests both parties are watching closely this cycle. CBS News' director of elections and surveys, Anthony Salvanto, has flagged the broader map of congressional races where control of Congress is up for grabs. Separately, former Vice President Kamala Harris is set to campaign in Michigan with Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, a reminder that both parties are deploying their biggest names to close contests this fall.
Cooper has not yet been reported responding to Trump's specific crime remarks in the sourcing available here; this paper will note his reply when it comes. What's certain is that North Carolina, again, is a proving ground — for a message, and for a Senate majority neither party can afford to lose.
Read the footnotes. The story's always in the footnotes.
— Compiled from reporting by NBC News and CBS News.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."