Things are heating up here in North Carolina. Lara Trump’s out, not running for Senate. Michael Whatley’s in, with President Trump backing him. And it looks like Roy Cooper’s going to announce next week.

With no real primary in either party the general election is probably going to heat up pretty quickly.

Last week, in a poll Trump’s approval rating dropped to 29% with Independents. That’s good news for Cooper. Bad news for Whatley. What can Whatley do?

In politics men think they have the power in their hands to control their destiny. They don’t. It’s a hard truth but their fate is in the hands of the powers beyond their control.

In the end, when the smoke clears, most off-year elections like this one turn out to be more about the man who’s sitting in the White House than anything else. And those Independent voters will decide who wins the election. That leaves Michael Whatley sitting in a hard place.

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Telling stories, in his memoir Carter Wrenn follows The Trail of the Serpent twisting and turning through politics from Reagan to Trump. Order his book from Amazon.