North Carolina · General election, November 3, 2026
Matchup in the latest qualifying poll
Roy Cooper, NCDOTcommunications (2018), cropped version from Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0; Michael Whatley, Gage Skidmore (2024), crop by TaurusEmerald via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0
D +9.8 across 12 nonpartisan polls of this matchup
Latest poll per pollster from the last 180 days, equal weight, current top-two matchup only. Polls that tested other pairings, such as pre-primary hypotheticals, are left out of the table below as well. Not a forecast — state polls are sparse and carry wider error than national averages.
November 3 general-election candidate list
North Carolina State Board of Elections · Reviewed Sep 15, 2026
Ballot names from the September 2 statewide general-election list, reviewed September 15. Candidate lists can change; check the election office for revisions and write-in candidates.
| Pollster | Field date | Sample | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActiVote ↗ | Oct 20, 2026 | 400 likely voters | Roy Cooper 56.9% · Michael Whatley 43.1% |
| SurveyUSA ↗ | Oct 11, 2026 | 643 likely voters | Roy Cooper 54% · Michael Whatley 40% |
| Elon University/YouGov ↗ | Oct 8, 2026 | 561 likely voters | Roy Cooper 52% · Michael Whatley 39% · Shannon Bray 2% |
| East Carolina University ↗ | Oct 3, 2026 | 810 likely voters | Roy Cooper 53% · Michael Whatley 46% · Shannon Bray 2% |
| Big Data Poll ↗ | Sep 29, 2026 | 642 likely voters | Roy Cooper 51% · Michael Whatley 39% · Shannon Bray 7% |
| InsiderAdvantage ↗ | Sep 17, 2026 | 1,200 likely voters | Roy Cooper 48.4% · Michael Whatley 42.5% · Shannon Bray 1.6% |
| High Point University Survey Research Center ↗ | Sep 16, 2026 | 706 likely voters | Roy Cooper 50% · Michael Whatley 42% |
| Harper Polling ↗ | Sep 15, 2026 | 608 likely voters | Roy Cooper 49% · Michael Whatley 34% · Shannon Bray 3% |
| Change Research ↗ | Aug 1, 2026 | 967 likely voters |
Polling data via VoteHub Polling API, licensed CC BY 4.0. The Baseline computes the displayed average; VoteHub does not endorse it. Partisan and campaign-internal polls are excluded.
| Roy Cooper 50% · Michael Whatley 41% |
| Beacon Research/Shaw & Co. Research ↗ | Jul 27, 2026 | 1,005 registered voters | Roy Cooper 53% · Michael Whatley 44% |
| Public Policy Polling ↗ | Jul 11, 2026 | 759 likely voters | Roy Cooper 48% · Michael Whatley 44% |
| The New York Times/Siena University ↗ | Jun 27, 2026 | 601 likely voters | Roy Cooper 50% · Michael Whatley 43% |
North Carolina Senate race
