Whatley Wants to 'Back the Blue.' He Also Hired a Cop Who Pleaded Out on Child Sex Charges.

Michael Whatley has one song, and he plays it in every county. Public safety. Law and order. Back the blue. In Garner on Friday, flanked by law enforcement and Republican officials, Whatley called public safety the government's most important responsibility and pledged to support law enforcement if elected. He touted endorsements from the North Carolina Troopers Association, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the Police Benevolent Association. Fine. Now answer the question.

While Whatley chairs his crime crusade, a Democratic-aligned group has been running a seven-figure ad about the company he kept. A $2.3 million WinSenate PAC campaign ties Whatley to Harvey West, a longtime party fundraiser and convicted sex offender, on YouTube, smart TVs, and streaming.⁷ West was arrested in 2000 and charged with the statutory rape of three minors while serving as a police officer on the Outer Banks; the charges were reduced to five counts of indecent liberties with a child as part of a plea deal.⁷ A cop. Charged with molesting three young girls. And Whatley, chairing the North Carolina GOP, gave him a seat at the table anyway.

Here is the tell. When a reporter asked him about it, the man who never shuts up about crime suddenly had nothing. Whatley has not discussed his connection to West publicly and rebuffed an NC Newsline reporter, deflecting with, 'Probably the better question would be, why did Roy Cooper release thousands of hardened criminals from prison?'⁷ That's not an answer. That's a magician waving his other hand.

About that other hand. Whatley's whole theory of the case is a 2021 COVID prison settlement. He blames Cooper for a legal agreement that accelerated the transition of at least 3,500 people out of prison over six months, an agreement that stemmed from a lawsuit arguing pandemic-era prison conditions were unconstitutional.⁸ Cooper, who actually did the job Whatley is pantomiming, isn't backing down. Asked Friday about the attacks, Cooper said, 'I'm the only one in this race who's actually prosecuted violent criminals and worked to keep them behind bars.'⁶ He was attorney general for sixteen years before eight as governor. Whatley has, by his own admission, never run for anything.

Now the scoreboard, because the receipts matter. A new Elon University poll released Aug. 12 shows Cooper leading Whatley 53% to 42% among likely voters.¹ The pollster's director, Jason Husser, expects the race to tighten as voters get to know Whatley, but among the roughly half who already know him, the contest becomes very close.¹ A Carolina Journal poll released days later put Cooper's lead at 12.5 points, with Whatley's publisher conceding there's 'little for the Whatley campaign to like about this poll' and that Cooper leads independents 55 to 34.²

So how does a guy this far down stay competitive? He doesn't. His donors do. Whatley's campaign has raised a little over $11 million this cycle, less than a third of Cooper's roughly $35 million, and reported just $3.5 million in reserves at the end of June against Cooper's more than $20 million.⁵ The rescue comes from the checkbook cavalry. The Senate Leadership Fund has promised $71 million, more than Cooper and Whatley have raised combined, and its biggest donors include billionaires Elon Musk, Ken Griffin, Paul Singer, Miriam Adelson, and Stephen Schwarzman.³ That group alone has already dumped $17 million into boosting Whatley and shredding Cooper as soft on crime.³

That's the grift in miniature. A candidate who can't raise the money runs on somebody else's, then lectures the state about safety while stonewalling on the sex offender he personally elevated. Even Thom Tillis, the retiring Republican whose seat this is, told the Washington Examiner in July that he 'clearly' prefers Whatley but questioned whether he's doing enough to win over the swing voters he'll need.⁴ When your own team's outgoing senator is hedging, that's a message.

Back the blue, Michael? Start by answering the question about the cop you hired. MUCK YOU!