WCU political scientist Chris Cooper on the ongoing battles over election laws and voting rights

With the 2026 midterm elections less than 100 days away, it a great time to check in with one of the state’s foremost experts on politics and elections, Western Carolina University Professor of Political Science, Chris Cooper.

This past week, Newsline got a chance to catch up with Cooper for an extended conversation in which we delved into an array of front burner topics. In Part One of our chat, we focused on the issue of our elections, themselves – how they’re run, how President Trump has repeatedly sought to sow distrust in their honesty and how they’re run, and how Trump’s Republican allies in North Carolina have taken a number of recent actions that they say will improve voting and elections, but that critics argue are really just thinly disguised efforts to discourage participation by voters the GOP fears will vote for Democratic candidates.

In Part Two of our conversation, Cooper shared some of his thoughts on the career of longtime South Carolina U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham in light of his recent passing, as well as his take on the state of two high-profile North Carolina races on the ballot this fall – the U.S. Senate Race between Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley and western North Carolina congressional race between Chuck Edwards and Jamie Ager.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper.