NC House on offense, Balkcom selected in NC-11, Cooper's co-fundraising, Whatley FOP endorsement
Also: AFP Action drops more cash on ads for Whatley, Two polls show gap in NC Senate race (get the salt shaker out)
Welcome back to the Old North State Update. This is edition #32 for 2026.
THE BIG STORY
Fauci’s texts
Over 32,000 text messages and some 500 voicemails have been pulled from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s government issued iPhone. The data pulled from the phone spans from 2014 to 2022.
The first batch released by Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) includes a text of Fauci stating a second COVID-19 shot during the first trimester can “theoretically” cause a miscarriage. Meanwhile, Fauci and other top health officials involved in that text message made public statements that the shots were safe for pregnant women.
There’s something weird about Fauci’s phone though. Johnson said in an interview on NewsNation that despite Fauci having the phone for 8 years, he only had three contacts saved in it. That detail, to me, says Fauci probably had another phone.
Paul set up a “Reading Room,” for document drops and other materials to be released related to Fauci’s COVID-19 activities and the investigation into the origin of the virus.
A July 28 entry contains a set of emails and related documents spanning 496 pages on Gain of Function. UNC-Chapel Hill is prominently mentioned alongside the Wuhan lab in those emails.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
House GOP begins offense
The House Republicans social media accounts are wasting no time hitting the more progressive and vulnerable Democrats like Lindsey Prather ahead of the midterms.
Just a reminder: Legislative leaders in both chambers have signaled there will be no major votes held until after the midterm election in November. The legislature has entered into its skeleton sessions, gaveling in for a few days each month through the rest of 2026.
CONGRESS
Balkcom is new NC-11 candidate
Rep. Jennifer Balkcom (R-Henderson) was selected as the 11th Congressional District candidate to replace Congressman Chuck Edwards on the ballot for the November election. She has a serious uphill battle ahead both in fundraising in time, with less than 3 months to the election.
Read my article over at North State Journal for the full run-down.
Chelsea Walsh has been named to take over Balkcom’s District 117 seat.
Related Reading: North Carolina Democrat House Candidate Attended ‘Communist-Friendly’ College with a Labor Camp (Breitbart)
General Assembly related reading:
U.S. SENATE
Cooper co-fundraising with top progressives
In case you missed it, over at North State Journal I have a detailed run-down on Roy Cooper’s fundraising efforts with top progressive sitting U.S. Senators.
One of them is Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), who shares a common donor: LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who has been linked to trips to Jeffrey Epstein’s island.
Cooper also got money from a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) board member.
SPLC is under federal indictment for charges like money laundering and funding the very hate groups they claim to be fighting.
This past week, the DOJ revealed SPLC’s former CEO Heidi Beirich has been charged with “conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama issued a press release, which says Beirich was served with an arrest warrant and she has been added to the as a defendant to the superseding indictment against the SPLC. The second superseding indictment was made public on Aug. 11.
Whatley speaks at FOP Convention
On Wednesday, Michael Whatley gave a speech at the NC Fraternal Order of Police (NCFOP) convention held at the Marriott in Carolina Beach. At that event, Whatley received the endorsement of the NCFOP.
Whatley has already received the NC Police Benevolent Association’s endorsement as well as the NC State Trooper’s Association and dozens of sheriffs across the state.
Cooper has received no such police endorsements to date. In related news, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who has appeared in Cooper’s fundraising emails, lost his endorsement from the Ohio FOP for the first time in 12 years.
In a separate campaign stop on Friday, Whatley held another law and order themed press event in Garner. Joining Whatley were US Congressman Brad Knott (NC-13), NC Sen. Benton Sawrey, Steven Scherbekow with the North Carolina State Troopers Association, and Steven Fredrico, the father of Logan Fredrico who was murdered in South Carolina by a career criminal during a break-in.
Federico’s father made national headlines during the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight’s field hearing in Charlotte last year examining rising crime following the murder of Iryna Zarutska on the city’s light rail system.
During that hearing, NC Congresswoman Deborah Ross misidentified an image of Federico’s daughter as Zarutska. Federico interrupted Ross, pointing to the photo and angrily telling her “This is my daughter. This is not Iryna. This is my daughter, OK? This is Logan Federico.”
Cooper ad pivot
The Whatley campaign’s strategy of hammering Cooper on his “soft on crime” policies and COVID prisoner release seems to be paying off.
The Cooper campaign dropped short ad defending his record this past week:
Seven figure ad buy supporting Whatley
Americans for Prosperity Action announced a seven figure ad buy in North Carolina as part of it’s $5.6M summer ad campaign.
The press release hits Cooper for campaigning with Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Raleigh and promotes Whatley as a “fresh perspective” for Washington, D.C.
ADP Action is also calling out Democrats over its Democratic Socialist of America candidates:
Related NC Senate reading:
Democrat Roy Cooper Created a Soft-on-Crime Manifesto (Breitbart)
POLLING
Get the salt shaker out
Dust off your shaker of salt - two polls have Cooper up by double digits.
First, an Elon University Poll has Cooper up by 11 points.
“Among all those who said they were registered to vote, Cooper is favored by 51% and Whatley is favored by 35%, with 11 percent saying they were undecided or planned to vote for someone else and 3% saying they do not plan to vote,” Elon University Polling’s press release states.
The question asked paired with that 11 point gap was: If the election for United States Senator from North Carolina were held today, who would you vote for?
The methodology shows it was yet another online poll conducted by YouGov, which “interviewed 861 18+ year-old residents of North Carolina who were then matched down to a sample of 800 to produce the final dataset.” Who were the 61 cut?
The resulting 800 person sample included both likely and registered voters.
The methodology says 717 were registered voters, the and the margins of error were high even with weighting:
Likely voters: +/-5.6%
Registered voters: +/-4.42%
Registered voters: +/-4.24%
The press release toplines and methodology can be found on the Elon University Polling landing page.
Second, Carolina Journal also dropped a poll showing Cooper leading by 12.5 points.
“Support for Cooper, a former two-term governor, now stands at 51.5%, according to the poll conducted Aug. 9-10 by Harper Polling,” Carolina Journal reported. “Support for Whatley, a former state and national Republican Party chairman, stands at 39%. The poll has a ±4% margin of error.”
The poll covered 600 likely voters.
Donald Bryson, John Locke Foundation’s CEO and Carolina Journal’s publisher, is quoted as saying, “Whatley gets 81% of Republicans, while 9% cross over to Cooper. By comparison, Cooper holds 91% of Democrats, with just 3% backing Whatley. Most concerning for Republicans, Cooper leads among independent voters by 55% to 34%. There is plenty of campaign left, but Whatley clearly has ground to make up.”
Just a reminder: Republicans outnumber Democrat voters in North Carolina. Independents are going to be the difference.
Meanwhile, Fox News’ latest poll allegedly has Cooper only up by 2 with “non-college voters.” It’s unclear where that claim is coming from as the only poll related to this race found on Fox’s site is one published on July 29 noting Democrat voter enthusiasm is allegedly driving Cooper’s numbers. The article is here, crosstabs and toplines are linked near the end of the story.
As of this article, Real Clear Polling’s average has been updated to include the Elon and Carolina Journal polls and now has Cooper over Whatley by 8.5 points.
WHAT I AM READING
Country’s biggest teachers’ unions efforts to get DEI into AI for schools K-12 sparks backlash (Just The News)
Trump’s DC law-and-order blitz marks one year with eye-popping haul of suspects (Fox News)
DSA Activists upset after Wilmington removed their illegal propaganda bus stop benches (Breitbart)
Abbott proposes minimum 10 years in prison for educators who abuse students (Center Square)
Related: Education Dept. tackles ‘pass the trash’ in K-12 schools (NSJ)