2026-09-26T10:00:29.150Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/26/politics/senate-republicans-north-carolina-georgia-michael-whatley-mike-collins
一些共和党人日益担忧，两场曾被认为对维持其参议院多数席位至关重要的选举正逐渐旁落。
在对竞选官员、参议员和幕僚进行的十余次采访中，各方都意识到，北卡罗来纳州和佐治亚州的选情已不如该党此前预期那般具有竞争力，需要尽快做出是否继续投入资源的决定，尽管共和党官员坚称不会放弃两地候选人。
北卡罗来纳州参议员汤姆·蒂利斯等共和党议员表示，该党是时候在开支问题上做出艰难抉择了。
“你得把钱花在能选出共和党人的地方，”蒂利斯说，“我希望他们现在就这么做。我的意思是，不能仅仅因为想帮某个人就乱花钱。”
试图击败佐治亚州参议员乔恩·奥索夫的众议员迈克·柯林斯，以及将接替蒂利斯、前州长罗伊·库珀竞选对手迈克尔·沃特利，目前民调均落后，其竞选团队也面临质疑。如果共和党丢失北卡罗来纳州——这个唐纳德·特朗普总统曾三次拿下的州——民主党就将拿下夺回参议院多数所需四席中的一席。
美国共和党超级政治行动委员会“老北行动”上周将其在北卡罗来纳州的广告投放预算削减了约三分之一，这是迄今最明确的信号之一，表明共和党可能已对该选区失去信心。沃特利本周表示，他对筹集到所需资金“感到非常放心”。
“我不知道迈克尔的胜算在哪，我就直说吧。除非库珀彻底翻车，”一位不愿透露姓名的北卡罗来纳州共和党战略家告诉CNN，他希望能自由讨论政治环境。
柯林斯的竞选团队近日向盟友明确表示，佐治亚州需要更多援助。在其官网发布的周一日期的备忘录中，竞选团队称十分之一的选民“仍未确定支持对象”，他们大多是2024年支持特朗普、且在州长竞选中支持里克·杰克逊的选民——杰克逊与民主党人凯莎·兰斯·伯顿的选情胶着。
“他们本该投票给迈克·柯林斯，但目前还没有，主要是因为他们对他尚无明确看法，”备忘录写道，暗示加大广告投入可以改变这一局面。
但共和党及其盟友不得不斥巨资巩固哪怕是更倾向共和党的席位，其中包括在得克萨斯州投入超过1亿美元。
“我们正在为所有候选人筑起一道坚实的防线，”参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩说，“全国各地的所有选举都面临逆风。”
共和党领导层释放信号称，他们仍将致力于佐治亚州和北卡罗来纳州的竞选。图恩周四晚间与佐治亚州州长布莱恩·坎普一同在亚特兰大出席了为柯林斯举办的筹款活动。特朗普和副总统JD·万斯近日也分别到访北卡罗来纳州，这是他们在共和党中期代表大会后首次为候选人助选。
美国共和党全国参议院委员会发言人尼克·普利亚在针对本篇报道的声明中批评了奥索夫和库珀，并承诺共和党“将继续揭露他们的极左翼记录，彻底让他们退出政坛”。
参议院共和党全国委员会主席蒂姆·斯科特参议员周四驳斥了该委员会将佐治亚州和北卡罗来纳州降级优先级的说法。“一派胡言！”斯科特在X平台上写道。
他的否认是在与参议院共和党人举行闭门会议讨论参议院选区地图之后作出的。参议院共和党全国委员会发言人表示，斯科特对柯林斯和沃特利评价积极，称他们正在逐步缩小民调差距。
信任危机——部分人将矛头指向特朗普
但共和党其他阵营的信心正在减弱。
得克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁周一为其他州的一批参议院共和党候选人举办筹款活动期间，质疑共和党继续向可能已无法获胜的选区砸钱的决定。
“现在距离选举只剩40天左右了？我认为已经做不了太多了，”科宁说，“我认为问题在于资源应该投向何处。”
科宁与前总统乔治·W·布什共同主持的这场筹款活动，清晰传递了他对选区格局的看法。受邀嘉宾包括来自阿拉斯加、俄亥俄、密歇根、艾奥瓦、新罕布什尔和明尼苏达州的现任议员和候选人，柯林斯和沃特利并未到场。值得注意的是，科宁也未邀请得克萨斯州联邦参议员候选人肯·帕克斯顿——这位得克萨斯州总检察长今年在特朗普后期背书下在初选中击败了科宁。
他表示，自己将筹款活动聚焦其他州“是因为我认为资金在那些地方能发挥更大作用”。
科宁表示，他认为沃特利目前已无力扭转竞选局面。
“我觉得如果汤姆·蒂利斯参选，情况会大不一样，但总统基本是反对他的，现在我们的候选人知名度不高，处境艰难，”科宁说。
沃特利在最近一次接受电台采访被问及外部资金支持时，对自己的竞选持乐观态度。
“我们确实需要共和党之类的团体提供支持……因为民主党将向北卡罗来纳州投入数亿美元，”沃特利周四表示，“但我非常放心，未来42天我们将拥有开展竞选并获胜所需的资源。”
不过，在接受CNN采访时，北卡罗来纳州的几位共和党幕僚对沃特利当前的竞选策略提出了质疑，他们指出，支持这位前北卡罗来纳州共和党主席和共和党全国委员会主席的广告和竞选活动，主要都围绕犯罪问题展开。而从未败选的两届州长库珀，则将竞选重心放在了民生负担和经济议题上。
“我原本认为攻击犯罪的策略会奏效，他在任时的一些劣迹会反噬库珀。这本该是非常有效的宣传信息。但不知为何，目前并未引起共鸣，”那位共和党战略家说，“但他们什么其他措施都没采取。哪怕总统到访，也主要是反复强调犯罪问题。这一策略并未产生反响，我们应该做点别的。”
除“老北行动”外，共和党团体基本维持了竞选最后阶段的广告投放计划，参议院共和党竞选机构全国参议院委员会截至8月底已在北卡罗来纳州协调支出790万美元，在佐治亚州支出360万美元。
共和党一方的乐观理由是，北卡罗来纳州素有在选举最后时刻才做出决定的传统。特朗普在2024年选举的最后几天重点关注该州，引发了人们对他担忧该州选情的猜测。最终特朗普以3个百分点的优势拿下该州。
“这些民调看起来确实糟糕，”这位北卡罗来纳州共和党战略家在谈到今年的参议院选举时说，“好在共和党总能比民调表现更好。但从未好过这么多。”
与此同时，库珀的竞选团队一直敦促民主党人不要在该州掉以轻心。在美国最高法院裁决取消与政党联合支出的限制后，该团队的批评尤为激烈——这一裁决让沃特利此前担任主席的共和党全国委员会有了更多在选举中投入资金的灵活性。
“近20年来，民主党人从未在该州赢得过联邦全席位选举，”库珀的竞选经理杰夫·艾伦在一份声明中告诉CNN，“沃特利与华盛顿精英的人脉意味着共和党将不惜一切代价保住这个席位。”
在佐治亚州，柯林斯面临着比预期更强的在任议员奥索夫，后者已被传为2028年总统竞选的潜在候选人。（奥索夫已表示“毫无兴趣”。）
图恩在前往亚特兰大之前告诉CNN，他仍相信柯林斯能够获胜。
“我认为部分原因在于，这是一个大州，竞选成本高昂……我们派出的是一名众议员，要让他被选民熟知需要投入大量资金，”图恩说，“一旦他的知名度提升，就能就双方的差异展开辩论。”
“和其他地方一样，”图恩补充道，“这是资源问题。”
据一位熟悉此次活动的消息人士透露，图恩与坎普一同为柯林斯举办的筹款活动为候选人筹集了超过40万美元。
和库珀一样，奥索夫也警惕民主党人过早宣布胜利。他本周早些时候告诉CNN，他“不会想当然”。
“我们仍能看到共和党超级政治行动委员会的大量活动，”奥索夫告诉CNN，“至于全国性团体之类的，再说一遍，我每天都像处于落后位置一样开展竞选。”
CNN的马努·拉朱对本篇报道亦有贡献。
Republicans fear two key Senate races are slipping from their grasp
2026-09-26T10:00:29.150Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/26/politics/senate-republicans-north-carolina-georgia-michael-whatley-mike-collins
Some Republicans are growing worried that two key Senate races once considered critical to holding their majority are slipping from their grasp.
In more than a dozen interviews with campaign officials, senators and operatives, there is recognition that North Carolina and Georgia are looking less competitive than the party once anticipated and that decisions need to be made soon about whether to keep investing, even as party officials insist they are not walking away from their candidates there.
Republican senators like North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, said it was time for the party to make some tough decisions about spending.
“You spend the money where we get Republicans elected,” Tillis said. “I want them to do that now. I mean you don’t spend the money just because you want to help somebody.”
Both Rep. Mike Collins, who is trying to unseat Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, and Michael Whatley, who is running against former Gov. Roy Cooper to replace Tillis, are behind in polls and facing questions about their campaigns. A GOP loss in North Carolina – a state President Donald Trump won three times – would give Democrats one of the four flips they need to retake the Senate.
One GOP super PAC, Old North Action, trimmed its ad reservations in North Carolina by about a third last week, one of the clearest signs yet that the party may be losing confidence in the race. Whatley said this week he feels “very comfortable” he will have the money he needs.
“I don’t know what the path is for Michael. I mean, I’ll just say that. Unless Cooper just completely stumbles,” a North Carolina Republican strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the political environment, told CNN.
Collins’ campaign recently made clear to allies it needs more help in Georgia. In a memo posted on his website and dated Monday, the campaign argued that 1 in 10 voters are “still up for grabs” for Collins. The campaign said they are mostly voters who supported Trump in 2024 and are backing Rick Jackson for governor, who is in a closer race with Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms.
“They should be voting for Mike Collins, and they are not yet, mainly because they do not have a firm opinion of him,” the memo says, suggesting stepped-up ad spending could change that.
But the party and its allies are having to spend big to shore up even redder seats, including an investment of well over $100 million in Texas.
“We are erecting a big wall around all of our candidates,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. “There are headwinds we are facing in all the races around the country.”
Party leaders are sending signals that they’re still committed to Georgia and North Carolina in particular. Thune headlined a fundraiser for Collins on Thursday night in Atlanta along with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. And Trump and Vice President JD Vance each visited North Carolina recently as part of their first stops for candidates following the GOP midterm convention.
A spokesman for the NRSC, Nick Puglia, criticized Ossoff and Cooper in a statement for this story and promised Republicans “will continue working to expose their far-left records to permanently retire them.”
NRSC Chairman Sen. Tim Scott pushed back Thursday against any suggestion the committee was deprioritizing Georgia and North Carolina. “Hogwash!” Scott wrote on X.
His denial came after a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans where he discussed the Senate map. An NRSC spokesperson said Scott spoke positively about Collins and Whatley, saying they were chipping away at their polling deficits.
A crisis of confidence – and some blame for Trump
But confidence is waning in other corners of the GOP.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who hosted a fundraiser Monday for a group of Senate GOP candidates in other states, questioned the party’s decision to keep plowing money into races that may no longer be winnable.
“Here we are, what, 40 days out? And so I don’t think there is a lot that can be done,” Cornyn said. “I think it is going to be a matter of where the resources should be deployed.”
Cornyn’s fundraiser, which he headlined with former President George W. Bush, sent a clear message about his view of the map. The guest list included incumbents and nominees from Alaska, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire and Minnesota. Collins and Whatley were not there. Notably, Cornyn also excluded GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general who defeated him in a primary this year after getting a late Trump endorsement.
He said he focused his fundraiser on the other states “because I think the money will go a lot further in those places.”
Cornyn said he did not think there was anything Whatley could do to turn around his campaign at this point.
“I think if Thom Tillis was on the ticket, things would look a lot different, but the president basically went after him, and now we’ve got somebody who is not as well-known and he’s struggling,” Cornyn said.
Whatley painted an optimistic picture of his campaign during a recent radio interview where he was asked about outside funding.
“We certainly do need the groups, you know, like the Republican Party, to come in and be supportive … because the Democratic Party is going to send hundreds of millions of dollars into North Carolina,” Whatley said on Thursday. “But I feel very comfortable we are going to have the resources that we need over the next 42 days to prosecute this campaign and win.”
Still, when speaking with CNN, several GOP operatives in North Carolina questioned Whatley’s campaign strategy in this current environment, noting ads and campaign events supporting the former North Carolina GOP and RNC chair have predominately focused on crime. Meanwhile Cooper, a two-term governor who has never lost a race, has centered his campaign around affordability and economic issues.
“I thought the crime stuff would be effective, that some of the bad stuff he did in office would come back to bite Cooper. It should be a really good message. But, for whatever reason, it’s not landing yet,” said the GOP strategist. “But they aren’t doing anything else. Even when the president came, he mostly harped on crime. It’s not resonating, we should be doing something else.”
Outside of Old North Action, Republican groups have mostly maintained their ad reservations for the final weeks of the races and the NRSC, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, has already spent $7.9 million in coordinated spending in North Carolina and $3.6 million in Georgia through the end of August.
The optimistic case for Republicans is that North Carolina has a reputation for deciding late. Trump focused heavily on the state in the closing days of the 2024 election, raising speculation that he was concerned about it. He went on to win by 3 percentage points.
“These polls look really rough,” the North Carolina GOP strategist said of this year’s Senate race. “The good thing is, Republicans always outperform polls. But, never to this degree.”
Cooper’s campaign, meanwhile, has long urged Democrats against growing complacent in the state. They were especially outspoken after a Supreme Court ruling lifted limits on coordinated spending with political parties, giving the Republican National Committee – which Whatley previously led – more flexibility to spend in races.
“A Democrat has not won statewide federal office here in nearly two decades,” Cooper campaign manager Jeff Allen told CNN in a statement. “Whatley’s elite DC connections mean Republicans are going to spend whatever it takes to keep this seat.”
In Georgia, Collins is confronting a stronger-than-expected incumbent in Ossoff, who is already generating buzz as a potential 2028 presidential candidate. (Ossoff has said he has “zero interest.”)
Thune told CNN, shortly before his trip to Atlanta, that he still believes Collins can win.
“I think part of it is, it’s a big state, an expensive state and … we’ve got a House member running, who it just takes a lot of money to get known,” Thune said. “I think once you get the name ID up there, you can litigate the contrast.”
“It’s like every place else,” Thune added. “It’s a resource issue.”
Thune’s fundraiser for Collins, which also featured Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, brought in over $400,000 for the candidate, according to a source familiar with the event.
Like Cooper, Ossoff is also wary of Democrats declaring victory too soon. He told CNN earlier this week that he is “taking nothing for granted.”
“We’re still seeing significant Republican super PAC activity,” Ossoff told CNN. “As for the national groups and whatnot, again, every day I run like I am behind.”
CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.
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