Supreme Court campaign ruling puts insiders and party bosses over everyday people

Statewide elections in North Carolina are highly competitive and extremely expensive. Voters make it the country’s ultimate swing state, having voted for President Trump and for me in 2016 and 2020. That also makes it a top target for Washington insiders and big money interests who try to buy elections for their favorite candidates.

When I announced my candidacy for Senate, we already knew big money would play an oversized role in trying to keep this seat in Republican hands. Although polls have had my campaign ahead, we always knew the race would be close. Democrats running for Senate in North Carolina often seem like they’re winning in the summer only to get their hearts broken in the fall. Our last Democratic senator was elected almost two decades ago and we have only elected two Democrats in almost 40 years.

Many people look at the polls along with the unpopular actions coming out of Washington and think we have this race won already. Instead of working to lower prices and deliver for working families like they promised, President Trump has insisted on his costly tariffs while he and his allies have dragged our country into an unpopular, chaotic and endless war, while the cost of gas, groceries, utilities and health care have all spiked.

But they just might get away with these failings because Republicans in Washington have another card up their sleeves for the midterms: their massive, multi-million dollar war chests.

Instead of doing what leaders should do and deliver results, Republicans have tossed out the rulebook and handed billionaires and special interests even more influence over our elections. This tactic upends my campaign and other close races by further silencing the voices of everyday people in favor of big money and national party committees.

It started last month with the Supreme Court’s worst campaign finance decision since Citizens United . In NRSC v. FEC , the Supreme Court removed coordination limits, giving parties and political committees, which raise money at one hundred times the limits of campaigns, the ability to spend virtually unlimited amounts of money on advertising.

This decision is uniquely painful in North Carolina. My opponent is Michael Whatley, former chair of the Republican National Committee, who spent his career lobbying for Big Oil and utility companies as they raised prices and rates on families. The ruling uniquely helps candidates like him. His elite DC connections have already resulted in an onslaught of tens of millions of dollars in ads on the airwaves.

Then, in yet another emergency Supreme Court ruling — after ballots were mailed — Trump’s FCC allies completed their scheme at the Supreme Court. Upending decades of law, the court allowed the FCC to require local television broadcasters to give these same coordinated party committees a massive discount on television ads .

Now, they can not only spend unlimited amounts, but they can also do it at discount rates. The law clearly states that only candidate committees should get these rates as they are bound by much stricter campaign limits. But just like Trump’s White House Ballroom case, the court let Republicans off the hook on a technicality — not on the law.

This means the Republican National Committee, in coordination with their old boss Michael Whatley, can now buy four, five, or in some cases as many as 16 ads for the price they paid for one ad in 2024. That is a massive, legally mandated corporate-funded discount.

This is one big recipe for the wealthiest and well-connected to bail out their favored candidates. When you’re running to have the backs of everyday people, the big corporate interests tend to set their sights on defeating you.

As the former party chair running in the most competitive Senate race in the country, in one of the most expensive states to communicate, Michael Whatley is perfectly positioned to benefit from the Republican National Committee’s $130 million dollar war chest.

Life is really hard for working families right now. Everything is more expensive, from gas, to groceries to health care. I’m running to Make Stuff Cost Less. But, as Washington Republicans flood North Carolina with hundreds of millions of dollars of lies, they are banking on the fact that they can drown out that message.

I am a prisoner of hope. I truly believe our best days are ahead of us. But Washington is broken, and instead of trying to fix it, they are trying to rig the game in their favor. Enough is enough. Washington needs some North Carolina common sense.

Roy Cooper served as governor of North Carolina from 2017-2025. He is the state’s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.