North Carolina voters saw Cooper as more moderate than a typical Democrat and saw Whatley in line with typical Republicans

Average ideological placement on economic and social issues, 1 = very liberal, 5 = very conservative

The Searchlight Institute and Impact Research conducted an online and text-to-web survey among 4,879 likely 2026 voters in Alaska, Maine, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina and Texas from October 22-28, 2026. The data was then reweighted to match the election results. The margin of error is +/- 4.4% for Maine, and +/- 3.6 for Texas, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, and Ohio, and higher for subgroups.