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Speaker 1: What is going on?
Speaker 2: Everybody, Happy Thursday, Welcome to the program News Talk eleven,
ten ninety nine three WBT. Enjoy this brisk weather because
it's about to go away for like five days. Hey,
it's gonna yeah, it was a heat dome. That's the
that's the term everybody's using now. A heat dome be
over one hundred degrees through like I don't know the
rest of our lives. No, it's gonna be like Saturday, Sunday,
Monday and Tuesday one hundred, one hundred and ten degrees
here in Charlotte.
Speaker 1: Ugh, we will get through it.
Speaker 2: We will get through it, especially those who have opted
out of the throttling of the air conditioning units by
Duke Power. But Anyway, let's get to the big news
here in North Carolina, which is that number one former
Governor Roy Cooper, my good friend Ray as I like
to call him, because that's what Hillary Clinton called him
when she was campaigning for him in North Carolina, called
him Ray Cooper. So tight, those two so tight. And then,
if I remember correctly, Kamala Harris also referred to him
as Ray Cooper at some point too early on. They
then became very good friends, although he would not join
her ticket. But anyway, regardless, Roy Cooper expected to announce
that he is running for the Senate seat that Tom
Tillis is not going to seek reelection.
Speaker 1: Two.
Speaker 2: This from the Charlotte Observer by Danielle Battaglia. Morgan Jackson,
who is Cooper's advisor longtime advisor, told McClatchy, which is
the parent company of the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh
News and Observer, and I think the Durham Herald Sun
maybe I forget, but the McClatchy papers were told by
Morgan Jackson yesterday that quote Governor Cooper would be making
his intentions known in the coming days. But Axios had
already reported that Cooper plans to announce his run next week,
and attributed its story to multiple unnamed sources. Jackson told
McClatchy that he would not confirm Axios's reporting, So it
does appear that Cooper is getting into the race. The
twenty twenty six Senate race is expected to be one
of the most expensive in the country and closely watched
as the swing state of North Carolina could help determine
whether Republicans maintain the majority. This is a very favorable
map for Republicans. I'm not saying that they can lose
North Carolina and be fined, but they don't want to
lose North Carolina. But it is going to be a
competitive race, and it's going to be a very expensive race,
and it will determine whether or not Republicans can expand
their current majority, which they have a fifty three to
forty seven seat majority in the US Senate. They could
actually expand that majority, but they would have to hold
North Carolina. They'd have to hold that seat that Tillis
currently has. Now Republicans, well, this was written yesterday, so
they're weighing names like Laura Trump, Michael Wattley to run
in their primary Pat Harrigan, congressman, potentially as well Don Brown,
a former JAG officer. He has already declared himself a
candidate in the Republican primary, but the filing does not
actually open until December first, Okay, so you don't have
to drop down the thousands of dollars to file to
run for US Senate. You don't have to do that
until December one. So and on the Democrat side, you've
got Representative former Representative Wiley Nickel. He's already declared multiple
times trying to get as much media attention as he could,
so he just made his announcement like twice. He's also
declared that he wants to run for this US Senate.
Se don't know if he will actually do so. With
Cooper getting in. If he stays in, that would that
I don't know what would happen, especially then if he's
going to split, you know, depending on Cooper's positions on things,
does he does Wiley Nickel run to the left of Cooper?
And if he does that, is that then open up
a lane for some other candidate, namely a bipock right,
like a black, indigenous person of color, whatever like it
could be. You could have somebody come in and try
to take.
Speaker 1: That lane, the non white male lane. But we don't know.
Speaker 2: My suspicion, this is just a guest. The Democrats have
not told me what's going to happen. I have not
pulled every single Democrat who could run for the seat.
But my suspicion is that Nicol bows out and they're
just going to clear the field for Cooper. They want
to avoid primary battle that might bloody him up a
little bit and make him spend a bunch of money.
So I suspect they're going to clear the field for him.
Cooper has run in every election since the late nineteen eighties,
so he is a fresh face obviously, and donelike Wiley,
he has faced multiple statewide races. You know, he was
attorney general for four terms I believe sixteen years total.
Before that, he was in the legislature for many terms.
In fact, he helped pass the most gerrymandered redistricting maps
in America, got sued multiple times over it. Talked about
how it's nearly impossible to comply with federal rules on
how to draw the districts and stuff. But that was
before the Democrats lost power and then used redistricting as
a cudgel against the Republicans. He has statewide name recognition,
that is true, and that statewide profile was amplified as
he led North Carolina through the COVID nineteen pandemic, and
everybody's got really fond memories of that. So that's definitely
going to parlay into support for him. It will redound
to his benefit, I am certain. And also he according
to the the McClatchy right up here, that he worked
with Republicans to achieve Medicaid expansion. Okay, he did not
work with Republicans to achieve Medicaid expansion. Okay, Republicans did
that on their own. Republicans did that, and then he
signed it because he needed a win. He had blocked
every budget. He vetoed every single budget, including those with
big pay raises for teachers.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: He sacrificed everything in every budget cycle, vetoing every single
budget except for the very last one, which was when
Republicans expanded Medicaid, which now is probably going to be
unwound because of the big, beautiful bill that was passed
up in Congress that did away with the little clever
loophole that the Republicans used in order to pass the
costs of the expansion on to the federal government, thereby
in seeing our national deficit and our crushing debt that
will be paid by generations to come. Okay, so Roy
Cooper candidate number one, well number two if he count
Wiley Nickel.
Speaker 1: But let's be clear, no one's counting Wiley Nickel.
Speaker 2: Okay, So it's it's Roy Cooper, and I suspect the
field will clear for him. Nobody else will challenge him.
And because my goodness, like, look what he did to
fellow Democrats in the legislature when they crossed him. He
primaried them, right, he got them primaried. So I suspect
that he will issue the same sorts of ham fisted,
heavy handed threats against Democrats that try to run against him,
that they will have, you know, no role in Democrat
politics if if they challenge him, I would have no
reason to believe he would not issue a similar threat
to his fellow Democrats like he already has in the past.
Speaker 1: He's done him multiple times.
Speaker 2: Like I said, he primaried these these other lawmakers because
they didn't toe the line for him on every single
veto override vote. And he did it with the HB
two debate. Oh, that's right, the HB two debate. That
might not actually be helpful to him. Now, Oh, what
a difference fifteen years makes. But also now we have
a Republican candidate. After Lara Trump said she will not
run for this Senate seat, we got Michael Watley, the
RNC chair, the former North Carolina GOP chairman. He is
expected to run for the Republican nomination. We'll do that
bit up next.
Speaker 1: All right, if you're.
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ninety nine three WBT seven oh four five seven zero
eleven ten is the number dial if you'd like to
join the program. That is also the same number as
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the petecalnarshow dot com. You can hit MP on Twitter
at Pete callener. We got the smoke signal reader out back,
the telegraph wires coming through loud and clear.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we are good to go.
Speaker 2: All right, So we've got Roy Cooper on the Democrat side,
over on the Republican side. This from Politico Lara Trump,
who the President had previously asked to run. This is
Eric Trump's wife, so Donald Trump's daughter in law. She
has decided to remain as host of her weekly show
on Fox News. She's expected to back Michael Wattley, with
whom she co chaired the RNC last year, and the
two will likely appear together in the near future. According
to the people who were granted anonymity to discuss the
plans in advance, public announcement is expected in the next
week to ten days. Wattley is the chairman of the
Republican National Committee. He's also been a key figure in
North Carolina GOP politics and is reportedly preparing to enter
the race. This from The Carolina Journal Wattley's anticipated run.
Speaker 1: This is by Donna King.
Speaker 2: By the way, Wattley's anticipated run signals a major development
in North Carolina's political landscape. A former chair of the
North Carolina Republican Party, I believe he held that post
for five years, Wattley has been a close ally of
President Donald Trump and has played a central role in
shaping the GOP's election integrity messaging. His rise to RNC
chair in twenty twenty four solidified his position as a
national conservative leader with deep state level routs. Not deep
state level, but deep state level roots okay. During his
time as NC GOP chair from twenty nineteen to twenty
twenty three, Wattley helped Republicans expand their legislative majorities. Supporters
say he positioned the party for long term success in
statewide elections. His entry could deter other Republican hopefuls, especially
if Donald Trump offers an early endorsement, which from the
reports I have heard from various sectors and people, that
will occur. However, conservative challengers may emerge depending on how
the primary unfolds. So far, Andy Nilson of the Triad
has already declared his candidacy for the primary, supporting a
Trump hat. Also I mentioned em earlier, Don Brown. He
ran for Congress. He ran for the seat that Dan
Bishop vacated when he ran for Attorney General. Don Brown
ran for that seat. He was not successful in the
Republican primary. Mark Harris won that seat, won the nomination,
and then won the seat in the general. But Don
Brown has declared plans to challenge till Us in the
GOP primary, so we don't know if he will intend
to continue that run. If Michael Wattley is the guy
that walks into the race with a Trump endorsement in
his pocket. Right, So back to the Politico story. Wattley
was elected RNC chair in March of twenty twenty four,
led the party, alongside Lara Trump, to sweeping victories up
and down the ballot in last year's elections. Republicans believe
that Wattley's connections with donors will be an asset in
what will likely be one of the most expensive races
in next year's elections. And that is true. Okay, that
is true. There's a reason why Republicans believe this. It's
because it is true.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Michael Wattley, when he was North Carolina GOP chairman, went
all over the place and got donations from all over
the country from all sorts of people. He brought in
all sorts of national figures to help with various races
up in Asheville when I was up there, he brought
Ted Cruz to town and did a meet and greet
campaign event at the time for I'm trying to remember
what race would that have been twenty Probably it may
have been the Well because Madison Cawthorne was there. Tim
Moore was there, but he was still Speaker of the House.
Trying to remember who it might have been Tillis. It
may have been Tom Tillis's last reelection. That would make
sense because that would have been in twenty Yeah, I
think so at any rate, or maybe it was maybe
it was eighteen, but anyway, So Wadley has a very
thick roll ofdex and when he went to the RNC,
now obviously the network that he is able to build
out gets even bigger, right, and he's going.
Speaker 1: To need that.
Speaker 2: Any candidate is going to need that, and so he
would be the best positioned as far as I know, Like,
I haven't heard any other names of any other Republicans
in North Carolina that have expressed an interest in running
for this seat. There's also you know, you always got
to keep in mind that it's the midterms in a
Republican presidency, and that usually does not benefit the party
that is in power in the White House, right, The
president's party generally loses seats in the midterm elections, and
you know, maybe that changes this time. It has there
are anomalies, right that has occurred in the past, and
so it's possible we could see that trend break differently
this time around. That's possible, But Watley is able to
walk in. While he doesn't have a lot of name
ID like Roy Cooper has, he does have a huge
fundraising donor network, not just in.
Speaker 1: State, but out of state as well.
Speaker 2: He's also going to likely have Donald Trump's endorsement because
Donald Trump, you know, seems to to love Michael Wattley.
He's he's always touting him. He's always pointing him out
and saying Watley did a great job. So, like, I
got to believe that Trump would make that endorsement. He
Trump is expected to announce Wattley's replacement at the RNC
around the time that he announces his Senate campaign. So
I made some notes to just kind of, you know,
handicap the race a little bit. I'm not making a prediction, don't.
I think anybody would be a fool to make a
prediction on this Senate race now, especially now, but even
you know, going into the election, because North carol these
races are always super close, these US Senate races, They're
always very very close, you know, two points one to
two points, that's what we're talking about. Democrats are targeting
North Carolina as a potential pickup opportunity in a map
that otherwise favors Republicans. This is from the political article,
and that's true. The overall national map for the Senate
races that are open this time around or in twenty
twenty six. Those you know, there are a lot of
seats that are solid Republican seats. There are a lot
of Republican seats that they don't have to defend this
time around, a lot of Democrat seats they do have
to defend, and states that are purple or voted for
Trump with a Democrat US senator that's giving them some adjita,
you might say. So they've got some challenges. The map
favors Republicans. We'll go over some of the handicapping notes
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nine three WBT seven oh four five seve eleven ten.
Email is Pete at the Pete calendershow dot com. Here
is one email from David If the North Carolina Senate
race ends up becoming a battle of Wattley versus Cooper,
with Wattley having the Trump war machine behind him, Cooper
will get his butt handed to him on a silver
platter multiple times. Well you only have one butt, David,
so it will be like an old school wrestling match,
no holds barred, loser leave town.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I again, I don't make predictions on election outcomes any longer,
not since twenty sixteen. I don't make these predictions. I'll
just wait and see what happens.
Speaker 1: Just like you.
Speaker 2: People can believe, you know, and hope and think that
they can, you know, read the tea leaves, and maybe
they're right sometimes, but nobody's right one hundred percent of
the time. So and then of course you never hear people.
Speaker 1: Say I was wrong. I was totally wrong. Listen to
me for future predictions.
Speaker 2: You know. This is from somebody on the text line
regarding Roy Cooper. Not only am I opposed to his
political decisions, most of which were simply vetoing legislation, but
I really dislike his condescending way of communicating with the public.
He sounds like mister Rogers addressing a group of kindergarteners.
This was one of my biggest beefs with Cooper and Cohen,
C and C during the I call them the C
and C music factory. But anyway, during their COVID briefings,
they talked to us like we were children, and it
was infuriating. Now, I don't know if people enjoy being
spoken to like that, And I'm just the outlier here,
but I don't think I am. You know, I don't
think I am. And I don't know if that's going
to play as well with a like a national kind
of audience. Maybe it does, but it doesn't really matter
because they don't vote in our state elections. And maybe
there are enough North Carolinians that to be talked to
like this.
Speaker 1: We'll see another text.
Speaker 2: Wiley Nickel is the womp candidate, white upper middle class
progressive womp whose base will be suburbs of places like Raleigh, Charlotte,
and Nashville. Cooper, coming from Nash County, is the remnant
of the rural white Democrat and has had to evolve
to survive. Don Davis would be the BIPOC candidate if
he chose to get in right, and I don't think
he is getting in.
Speaker 1: He might. I would be surprised if he does. And
here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Roy Cooper has enjoyed that Nash County origin story and
that you know, the super syropy southern drawl that he has,
the you know that makes him sound like mister Rogers
talking to kindergartners. And is that going to be enough
to get people to vote for him in this kind
of a scenario. I don't think so. The governor's race
and a Senate race are different and kinds of races.
In fact, let me jump over here and do This
is from our buddy Andrew Dunn at long Leaf Politics,
who spent a lot of time with Michael Wattley during
the twenty twenty campaign when he was in charge of
the North Carolina GOP. And in twenty twenty, that's when
Dan Forest was running against Roy Cooper, and Dunn worked
for Cooper or worked for Forrest, and he says what
I saw wasn't just a sharp strategist. I saw one
of the hardest workers in North Carolina politics, methodical, focused,
and tireless. The US Senate, as opposed to the governor's race,
the Senate is a nationalized race. By its very nature,
voters care less about personality and more about direction. Who
controls the chamber, what's at stake for the country. That's
the arena that Wattley is built for. He's got deep
ties to national donors as well as conservative groups. He
knows how to assemble a campaign team, and he knows
how to message with discipline. Most importantly, he understands what
this race will be about, which is a referendum on
Trump era conservatism and whether North Carolina still supports it.
Wattley is not a flashy guy, but he is aligned
with the current moment, and that gives him a real
shot to win. Republicans need someone who can turn out
the base without hemorrhaging swing voters, someone who can run
a focused, disciplined, and well financed campaign. Wattley very well
might be that person. Don't underestimate him. I think that's
sound analysis. Michael Wattley will not scare off suburban voters.
Speaker 1: He won't.
Speaker 2: He comes across as a nice guy, right, I mean, yes,
he's a Republican, He's a Trump Republican, and so you
know he's going to be a to defend the issues
and the philosophy and.
Speaker 1: All of that.
Speaker 2: But he's not like a fire breather like along the
lines of say Mark Robinson, He's not that kind of
a candidate. He's not that kind of a person. So
he's going to be much more palatable for a lot
of these voters that you know, I don't want to
feel icky when I pull the lever, you know. So
let's take a look real quick at Roy Cooper. Actually,
hang on, he's going to take more time, So let
me do this for These are some of the notes
I made about Wattley.
Speaker 1: It's true he's never been a candidate.
Speaker 2: Okay, he's never run for any office before, which is
a pro and a con. The pro is that he's
sort of a blank slate. He doesn't have any votes
attached to his name, right, But as head of the party,
he's made a lot of public statements. He knows a
lot about campaigns. He's done a lot of media, so
he knows how all of this stuff works. He's good
on TV and that's important. He also has a vast
network of donors to help him. He's going to have
a lot of people that owe him. As former North
Carolina GOP chairman and the former RNC chairman, right, there
are a lot of people that he has helped win
election and so he's going to be able to call
them up and say can you help me, and they will,
you know, feel obliged and want to do so.
Speaker 1: Now the flip.
Speaker 2: Side is he's going to be tied to everything Trump
and GOP because of those roles. Right, They're going to
be able to say he was the GOP chairman when
the GOP did everything right. Here's another thing. He knows
firsthand Roy Cooper's record here in North Carolina. So unlike
say Lara Trump, Michael Wattley was here.
Speaker 1: For all of this.
Speaker 2: He was, you know, boots on the ground during all
of Cooper's term, and so he knows the stuff that
Cooper did. He is well acquainted with the issues and
the weaknesses and strengths that Cooper brings to the table. Now,
one of the things Democrats are already trying to do
is to tie Wattley to Mark Robinson. Because Wattley was
the chair and because as chair you're trying to get
all of your candidates elected. He came out in favor
of Mark Robinson. He was defending Mark Robinson, he for
Lieutenant governor. He helped to get him elected. In all
of this, and they're going to try to hang Mark
Robinson around Wattley's neck. So there's that one final point
real quick on Lara Trump. Thank you and kudos to
Lara Trump for coming out as soon as she did
when the writing was on the wall and the reports
broke yesterday that Cooper was going to be getting in.
Her initial statements prior to yesterday were that she was
going to make a decision by Thanksgiving because the deadline
defile is December one, and that would have completely crippled
any Republican if she decided not to run. That would
have been four months wasted for a potential Republican candidate
to start their race. But by immediately coming out and
saying I'm not running for this, it now cleared the
field because everybody was waiting for her to say whether
she would or would not run. And I said last
time on my live stream, she needs to come out asap,
and I woke up this morning and she had. And
so thank you because you have not handstrung the Republican
Party and their potential to get a nominee on the
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dot com. Do Just Talk eleven ten ninety nine three
WBT seven oh four five seven oh eleven ten. From
the text line, Ronnie says, I think Roy Cooper is
the worst governor ever in North Carolina due to his
approval ratings. I'm afraid not enough people agree with me, though.
The thought of him in the Senate scares me to death. Yeah,
he will be a reliable vote for the left on everything.
Steve in Indian Trail says, I like Laura Trump, but
I'm glad she's not running, at least not now. Maybe
she will run after Trump's presidency is over, which I
would support. All Right, so let me go over some
of the notes I've I jotted down here about Roy Cooper.
Number one, he is popular, right, he won reelection. He's
won all of his statewide races. He is perceived at
least to be a moderate. Okay, people think he's a moderate,
but he votes progressive leftists on all sorts of stuff.
He has won every state wide race he's ever run in.
He won in twenty sixteen, he won in twenty twenty,
even when the state went for Trump. He can point
to this is according to WRAL, they were correct. He
can point to North Carolina's booming economy during his two
terms as governor, even though the Republican led legislature is
responsible for that.
Speaker 1: Boom, but he will point to it.
Speaker 2: But Michael Wattley can say, well, that was the Republican
legislature that you vetoed everything that they tried to do.
We boomed in spite of you. Roy Cooper has been
able to tap into outside money and out of state interests,
which he cultivated first in his HB two fight back
in twenty sixteen against Pat McCrory. And speaking of HB two,
that was a long time ago, a long time ago.
The politics of that issue, transgender, bathroom access, boys on girls, teams,
all of that stuff that has now changed. We were
the canary in the coal mine on that. He was
wrong on that issue. He was on the wrong side
of that issue at the time, but he was rewarded
for it because of the outside influences of money and media.
Could he pay the price for it now? It's possible,
Maybe he changes his stance on some of these trans
related issues, right, that's possible now too. Cooper has never
faced the kind of ad blitz and attacks that he's
now going to face. Okay, the interest from out of
state national money is it will be unlike anything he
has ever experienced, because it's just not the same when
you're running for governor in a weak governor state. And
you know, Mark Robinson's candidacy like Josh against Josh Stein
is a good example of it. People you know, started
moving money towards the race and then you know, things
were like, oh, we don't want anything to do with that,
and then all the money dried up for Robinson and
Cooper had all of the Cooper had a thick roll
of decks as well, because he had cultivated that with
HB two on the trans issue in twenty sixteen to
defeat Pat McCrory. He has a weakness. I would submit
in all of the vetos, of all of the budgets
and all the teacher pay raises. Right, he can't claim
credit for getting Medicaid expansion done, although he will try.
But that wasn't him that did it. The big one,
one of the big ones, the COVID lockdown policies, right,
and the fact that he marched with BLM around the
Governor's mansion with his fist in the air like the
COMI fist and the mask dangling off of his face.
He took his mask off during COVID. You're going to
see that photo all over the place. That's my prediction. Okay,
you're going to see that photo of him walking around
with the mask because it's the perfect encapsulation of the
elite right. I set all these rules, I lock you down,
but then BLM comes to town and I'm going to
march in solidarity with BLM, and I'm going to ignore
my own mask rules because it serves a political purpose.
Also major problem for him his disastrous respet to disasters,
going back to the very first term twenty sixteen, Hurricane Matthew,
Hurricane Florence, and then Hurricane Helene. They are going to
tag him on all of that. You got people down
East that are still not back in homes a decade
after Hurricane Matthew, and that's on him. A recovery office
that was so bad that Josh Stein had to set
up a brand new office and just start from scratch.
Where what's his position on ice? Does he have vetoes
there that hamstrung ice? Does he have any foreign policy
positions laid out?
Speaker 1: He does not.
Speaker 2: What's his stance on Gaza, because as a member of
the Senate, you're going to have to talk about that.
It's foreign policy related. So what are his foreign policy aims?
Is he pro Israel? Is he anti Israel. Does he
go full radical? What does Roy Cooper do on these issues?
It's going to be difficult, yeah, because he may very
well alienate his base, and if he does it early enough,
maybe some people do end up voting for a candidate
that's more radical progressive, left wing than Roy Cooper. Not
enough to make him lose the primary, of course, but
do they stay home in the general. These are all
questions that we will be watching. All right, that'll do
it for this episode.
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