Election 2026: Cooper laments energy costs that rose during his governorship

(The Center Square) – Fulfilling the executive order of first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, his Energy Policy Task Force presented a report showing energy prices in North Carolina rose faster than any state from 2017-24.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Roy Cooper has campaigned across the state in a tour labeled “Make Stuff Cost Less.” He was elected governor in November 2016 and served through Dec. 31, 2024.

The agenda of second-term Republican President Donald Trump has delivered a number of tariffs, and a multitude of court battles behind them. Large-load tariffs are part of the Stein administration’s task force recommendations in order to ensure large-load customers like data centers shoulder the majority of the costs associated with new large-load customers.

That’s also been a thinking of the General Assembly chambers under Republican majority leadership, and statewide polling of voters.

To wit, Duke Energy – supplier of more than 3.6 million retail customers statewide – expects a demand increase of 16% through 2040. For the 20 years of 2005 to 2025, the increase was just 7%. Residential rates have gone up nearly 30% since 2017, and a new rate hike is pending.

Of all states with data centers, North Carolina’s 97 is fewer only than Virginia (674), Texas (537), California (296), Georgia (276), Illinois (242), Ohio (240), Arizona (160), New York (135), Oregon (135), Indiana (125), Washington (117), Iowa (116) and Florida (111), according to DataCenterMap.com.

Cooper is locked in a pivotal duel with Republican Michael Whatley for the seat Republican Sen. Thom Tillis decided not to try and retain. Elections boards across the state one week from Friday begin sending requested absentee ballots to any voter, opening the 60-day window – no state has one longer – to Election Day on Nov. 3.

Early in-person voting is Oct. 15-31. North Carolinians will choose a U.S. senator, all 14 members of the U.S. House, and all 170 members of the General Assembly.

In the Southeast from 2017 to 2014, no state had a faster rise in electricity prices than North Carolina. While Stein lays blame with natural gas, Cooper stayed in lock step with the Biden administration’s $891 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that produced a staggering 9.1% inflation rate.

The Nash County governor now calling Raleigh home refused signature on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Throughout his political career that dates back five decades to 1988, he’s picked up $440,000 in campaign contributions from Duke Energy.

Duke Energy is the largest residential energy supplier in the state.

This U.S. Senate seat is viewed as a major player nationally in the quest for a majority in the chamber. Republicans have 53 seats today. In no particular order, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Maine, Iowa, New Hampshire, Alaska, Texas and Montana are the other top battlegrounds among 35 races.

Republicans are 5-for-5 in North Carolina's U.S. Senate races since losing to the late Kay Hagan in 2008. Democrats chase back to 1998 for the last time winning a Senate seat at the midterms. Yet Cooper counters with statewide wins in four attorney general races and two gubernatorial races – all from 2000 to 2020.

This is Whatley's first foray into individually winning political office. He's helped many candidates first as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, then as the picked chairman by Trump of the Republican National Committee.

Republicans in statewide races for this decade – 2020, 2022 and 2024 – are 32-10 against Democrats, a party with significantly declining voter registrations for more than 20 consecutive years.