The States’s Midterm US Senate race’s just could be linen g up FOR Democrats…. Democrat Roy Cooper has a healthy lead over Republican Michael Whatley in the North Carolina Senate race, according to a new poll. That gave the former two-term North Carolina governor a 7-point edge over Whatley, as the former Republican National Committee chair received support from 43 percent of respondents. There was a clear partisan split among North Carolinians, as 97 percent of Democrats backed Cooper and 91 percent of Republicans chose Whatley. Of those six, the North Carolina race is the only one the Cook Political Report rates as leaning Democratic.