What do we get for our vote?

Dear North Carolina,

I need to tell you a secret.

For years, I’ve been telling people, “I don’t care who you vote for, just vote.”

Part of me meant it. When I said it to my kids or to the college students in my sociology classes, I wanted them to participate. I wanted them to care. I wanted them to believe their vote mattered. I wanted them to understand that democracy only works when we actually show up for it.

But that wasn’t the whole truth. I did care who they voted for. I still do. And heading into North Carolina’s 2026 U.S. Senate election, I’m done pretending otherwise.

This isn’t a normal election between candidates whose differences can be boiled down to taxes, spending or whether you put an R or a D beside your name. We have evidence now. We’ve watched what happens when people decide both parties are basically the same, when they stay home because they don’t love either candidate, or when they convince themselves the candidate they can’t imagine winning couldn’t possibly win. But does.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Because I am tired of being told to wait. Wait until the next election. Wait until Democrats have a bigger majority. Wait until this administration is gone. Wait until the courts sort it out. Wait until the political climate changes. 

Meanwhile, people’s lives are being affected now. Trans people need healthcare right now. People who can become pregnant need control over their own bodies right now. Immigrant families need to know they can go to work, school or church without being treated like criminals. People need housing. Kids need libraries where they can find books that tell the truth about the world they live in — including books about people who look like them, love like them or have families like theirs. 

And other states aren’t just waiting. Across the country, states have enacted “shield laws” designed to protect patients, providers and people who assist with reproductive healthcare and, in many states, gender-affirming healthcare. Some explicitly limit their own governments’ cooperation with investigations coming from states trying to punish care that is legal where it was provided. 

In other words: States can push back. So I don’t want to hear that North Carolina has to sit quietly and wait for Washington to become reasonable again. And no, Roy Cooper doesn’t get a pass simply because there’s a D after his name. Governor, if you want our votes, tell us what we’re getting for them.  

Fortunately, Cooper has a record we can examine. When North Carolina lawmakers passed a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors in 2023, Cooper vetoed it, saying, “A doctor’s office is no place for politicians.” Republicans overrode him. 

When lawmakers passed restrictions on transgender students participating in school sports, Cooper vetoed that too. Republicans overrode him. 

When they passed the so-called Parents’ Bill of Rights, restricting how schools address gender identity and requiring school personnel to notify parents when some students ask to use a different name or pronouns, Cooper vetoed it. Republicans overrode him. 

When Republicans passed a 12-week abortion restriction, Cooper vetoed that. You can probably guess what happened next. Republicans overrode him again. 

And yet, during Cooper’s tenure, North Carolina also did something politicians had spent years telling us was impossible: We expanded Medicaid. More than 600,000 North Carolinians enrolled during its first year. Think about that. Our state decided hundreds of thousands more people deserved access to healthcare while simultaneously deciding politicians should be allowed to interfere with the healthcare of transgender kids.  

So don’t tell me the government can’t protect healthcare. It can. The question is whose healthcare politicians believe is worth protecting.

That brings us to Michael Whatley. Whatley is making this part remarkably easy. His number-one campaign priority is literally titled “Enact the Trump Agenda in the U.S. Senate.”

Believe him folks. Take him seriously.  

Whatley isn’t asking North Carolinians to elect an independent voice who happens to be a Republican. He is telling us exactly what he intends to do with this Senate seat: advance Trump’s America First agenda and help Republicans preserve their Senate majority.

So what else is on the list?

Whatley promises to “Make North Carolina Safe Again.” He says Cooper was too soft on crime, condemns cashless bail and expanded pretrial release and promises to “back the blue without apology.”

I’m going to need considerably more explanation than that.

Donald Trump also claims to support law enforcement, but approximately 140 police officers were assaulted while defending the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump returned to office four years later and granted clemency to nearly everyone convicted of crimes connected to the attack — including people convicted of assaulting police officers.

So you’ll forgive me if “back the blue” doesn’t tell me much.

Whatley says he supports putting more police officers on our streets. I would rather talk about what actually makes communities safer. If we’re going to spend more public money, let’s talk about well-trained law enforcement officers, mental health professionals, social workers, housing, addiction treatment, domestic violence prevention, youth programs, people trained to de-escalate a crisis instead of turning every problem into an arrest.

Because slogans aren’t policy.

Then there’s immigration. Whatley’s platform says he is “100 percent supportive” of Trump’s immigration agenda and mass deportations. He attacks Cooper specifically for vetoing legislation requiring North Carolina sheriffs to cooperate with ICE.

Again: Believe him.

If you think Trump’s immigration policies have gone too far, Whatley isn’t promising to be the Republican senator who puts on the brakes. He’s promising to help Trump keep going.

Then there’s the economy. Whatley’s entire economic platform on his website is essentially two paragraphs: affordable and reliable energy, reduced federal spending, American energy production, good-paying jobs and energy independence.

Those are lovely words, but tell me what they mean.

What happens to Medicaid? SNAP? Housing assistance? Public education? Social Security? Medicare? What happens when “reining in Washington’s reckless spending” collides with programs North Carolinians actually depend on?

Tell me where you’re cutting. Tell me who loses something. And tell me who gets the tax break.

Then we arrive at “Protect Our Conservative Values.” Whatley promises to defend the Second Amendment, “protect life,” support law enforcement and keep “radical woke ideology out of schools.”

What exactly are we talking about, Mr. Whatley? A teacher mentioning that some kids have two moms? A library book with a transgender character? Teaching students why Rosa Parks was told to move to the back of the bus instead of simply telling them that she refused? Talking honestly about slavery? Jim Crow? The Wilmington massacre? Stonewall? Native American removal?

The Trump administration hasn’t merely “targeted DEI.” It has worked to dismantle it throughout the federal government. It has stripped away programs meant to address discrimination against women, Black and brown people, LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized communities. It has attacked the federal recognition of transgender people and pushed them out of military service. And it is trying to reshape the way America tells its own history.

You don’t get to erase people from the story and then tell us you’re making America great.

Whatley also says he will “protect life.” Okay, whose life? 

Protecting life has to mean more than opposing abortion. What happens after a baby is born? Does that child have food, healthcare, housing and a good public school? What if they’re transgender? What if their parents are undocumented? What if their family needs SNAP or Medicaid? 

If we’re going to talk about protecting life, let’s talk about the whole damn life. And let’s talk about protecting children.

Harvey West, who pleaded guilty to multiple counts of taking indecent liberties with a child and served six years in prison, says Whatley appointed him to an NCGOP committee while Whatley chaired the state party. The party disputed reports that Whatley appointed West to a different leadership position, but did not dispute West’s account of the committee appointment. Whatley’s campaign declined to explain the appointment to PolitiFact. 

Republicans responded by pointing to a 2018 photo of Cooper at an LGBTQ+ event hosted by another person with a sex-offense conviction. But appearing at an event with someone and choosing someone for a position of responsibility aren’t the same thing.  

If you’re going to campaign on integrity and values, I want to see those values reflected not only in your own behavior, but in the people you choose to surround yourself with, elevate and trust. Whatley is telling North Carolina what he wants to do with this Senate seat. He’s telling us whose agenda he intends to advance. We need to pay attention.

There is also something deeply strange about politicians constantly telling us they are defending America while working to make it harder for most people to participate fully in American life. You love America? You love freedom? Great.

Then let all Americans serve in its military. Let us work, marry and raise families. Let us read books — all the books. Respect us enough to let us make decisions about our own bodies. Let us use a bathroom without turning it into a legislative emergency. Let teachers teach our whole history.

Respect the freedom of every person in this country to live, speak, protest, worship — or not worship — and disagree with their government without first passing somebody else’s test for what makes a “real American.” 

And stop announcing that you’re Christian. I don’t need to see your Trump-branded Bible or the picture of your family standing outside church in your Sunday best. If you want me to believe you’re a good person, be a good person. Be kind to strangers. Feed people. House people. Care for the sick. Protect children from measles, not drag queens.

Make room for all of us to enjoy the freedoms we deserve. And when those freedoms are under attack, don’t just tell us you disagree. Do something about it.

Being better than the alternative is not a policy platform. That’s why Democrats should stop asking us to wait and start fighting back.

Roy Cooper should tell LGBTQ+ North Carolinians exactly what he will fight for in Washington. Will he support federal protections for gender-affirming healthcare? What will he do when the federal government targets transgender healthcare providers? Will he protect transgender service members? Will he fight attempts to remove LGBTQ+ books from schools and libraries? What immigration policies will he support? What will he do about housing and homelessness? And when the Trump administration takes actions that are unconstitutional or an abuse of presidential power, what exactly will Senator Cooper do besides issue a strongly worded statement?

Those aren’t gotcha questions. They’re what we deserve to know before giving someone six years in the United States Senate.  

This isn’t about finding the perfect candidate. There isn’t one. It’s about looking at the people asking us to give them power, examining what they’ve already done, listening carefully when they tell us what they intend to do next and deciding what we are willing to live with for the next six years. 

In 2024, too many Americans believed someone else would make the decision for them. Some didn’t like Kamala Harris. Some were angry with Democrats. Some thought Trump couldn’t possibly win again. Some decided their vote wouldn’t make a difference. 

Well. Here we are. North Carolina has another decision to make.  

In case no one has told you lately — in case you’re exhausted, angry, disappointed or looking at this mess and wondering whether showing up could possibly make a difference: Your vote matters. 

Not because voting fixes everything. It doesn’t. Not because one election will suddenly make this country fair. It won’t. 

It matters because somebody is going to make this decision. Let it be us.  

Have a little hope. Vote.

This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.

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