Helene relief failures fuel attack ads in NC Senate race
Floodwaters carved a path of destruction — now the political fight over delayed relief is carving its own.
Majority Forward photo
A new political ad marks a sharp escalation in the U.S. Senate race between Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley, turning Hurricane Helene recovery into a central line of attack by accusing Whatley of overseeing delays of more than $100 million in disaster relief and framing the stalled aid as a failure of leadership, rather than of bureaucracy.
A pair of ads center on the claim that Whatley was tapped to lead the recovery but failed to deliver timely assistance.
One spot focuses narrowly on the alleged delay of more than $100 million in disaster relief for roads, homes and businesses, framing the issue as a matter of basic accountability.
A second, more expansive version amplifies the emotional stakes, describing “biblical devastation.” It links the same funding delays to families losing homes and to stalled support for schools and water systems, portraying the recovery effort as both insufficient and overdue.
Following Helene, President Donald Trump publicly elevated Michael Whatley to “recovery czar” during a visit to Asheville, later casting him as part of a newly formed FEMA review process.
That process, formalized through the FEMA Review Council, was tasked with evaluating federal disaster response and producing recommendations last fall, but questions have since emerged about its transparency, pace and output after blowing through deadlines and having its original one-year charter renewed twice.
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A leaked draft of the council’s final report suggested a focus on structural reforms and long-term changes, placing significantly more responsibility on state and local governments already frustrated by the lack of federal support 18 months after the storm.
Both ads close with a direct appeal for action, urging Whatley to “do your job” and release recovery funds immediately. The ads overstate Whatley’s formal power, but they accurately exploit a leadership vacuum where everyone seems to be in charge but no one seems to be in control.
Both ads are also cast against the backdrop of a larger funding gap, and a larger campaign.
According to state estimates, North Carolina suffered $60 billion in damage from the Sept. 27, 2024, storm. Recent figures show faster disbursements under new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin than under previous Secretary Kristi Noem, less than 15% of that total has reached state and local agencies, farmers and homeowners.
The campaign between Cooper and Whatley for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis could be the costliest of all time and will have national implications. A series of recent polls have shown Cooper, the state’s former two-term governor and attorney general, with a sizeable lead. The General Election, however, is still more than six months away and early-phase spending by Dem-aligned PACs like Majority Forward, which paid six figures for the anti-Whatley ads, will become larger and more frequent.
According to recent reporting by WRAL’s Will Doran, the GOP’s Senate Leadership Fund plans to spend $71 million in the race. Candidates, PACs and other dark money groups could push total combined spending in the race well above $500 million.
Accountability for the lagging Helene recovery already been an issue in Western North Carolina elections. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) sits on the House appropriations committee and represents the congressional district that took the brunt of the damage, but has thus far failed to deliver anywhere near $60 billion — despite claiming authorship of a $110 billion continuing resolution in December 2024 that only promised between $9 billion and $15 billion for North Carolina.
Edwards’ Primary Election opponent basically ran on Edwards’ inadequacies, breaking off about 30% of the vote in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Edwards.
Edwards’ General Election opponent, Democrat and farmer Jamie Ager, has also been critical of Edwards’ response and said Edwards had actually “made things worse.” Ager was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "red to blue" list in March, amid downgrades in Edwards' district.
