Cooper slams ‘erratic’ tariffs in Senate campaign stop at Wilson farm

Tariffs are threatening farmers’ livelihood in North Carolina and its multibillion-dollar agriculture industry, former Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday, pitching himself as the U.S. Senate candidate who will go to Washington and fight to take back power over tariffs and more from the presidency. His main GOP competitor, however, says Trump policies will help the state.

Speaking from a barn at Sharp Farms in the Wilson County town of Sims, Cooper met with several farmers from the Wilson and Rocky Mount areas — the same part of the state where he grew up on a tobacco farm.

“Farmers today truly are hurting,” Cooper said Friday. “And many of them are hurting because of the chaotic and erratic tariffs driving up prices.”

Trump has increased tariffs in part because he feels other countries haven’t treated the U.S. fairly in international trade. A tariff is a fee that a country charges on products coming in from other countries. The strategy has led to uncertainty among consumers, businesses and investors in part because increased costs tied to tariffs are often passed on to American customers in the form of higher prices. 

Data released last month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that inflation is up 3% year-over-year since Trump took office. Trump’s successful 2024 presidential campaign revolved in part around his claims that tariffs would help the economy — a theory viewed skeptically by many economists. 

Some of the farmers with Cooper spoke about how tariffs were sending prices skyrocketing for their equipment and fertilizer. Others spoke about how the international trade wars that are springing up, as retaliation against the tariffs, have made it harder for them to sell the products they grow. There are fewer local customers, too, one of the farmers said, because Americans have less spending money now due to tariffs raising prices on many everyday products.

Cooper, a Democrat, and Republican Michael Whatley are their parties’ leading candidates to win the 2026 primaries and face off next November to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who isn’t running for reelection. Cooper said he fears that Whatley, if elected, won’t do anything to stand up to Trump even on policies that would hurt the North Carolina economy.

A spokesperson for Whatley declined an interview request Friday. In a written statement to WRAL News, Whatley expressed strong support for Trump’s policies and blamed Democratic policies for inflation.

“North Carolinians deserve leadership that will create jobs, raise wages, expand opportunity, and make our state affordable again — that is what President Trump and I will do,” he said.

Fight over Congress' power

The U.S. Senate voted 51-47 last week to approve a resolution criticizing Trump’s tariffs. It passed with the support of every Democrat as well as four Republicans. Both of North Carolina’s Senators, Tillis and Ted Budd, voted against the resolution in a show of support for Trump. Cooper said he wants to go to the Senate to help take back its power from the White House to authorize — or end — tariffs.

“The first thing we have to do is to get back this tariff authority that the Constitution gives, to the legislative branch, to get back to trade deals that really work,” Cooper said.

Whatley has supported Trump’s tariff plans in the past but didn’t respond to WRAL News’ question Friday on whether he still does. Cooper alleged Friday that Whatley, if elected to the Senate, “wouldn’t do anything that this president told him not to do. I would stand up and say, ‘These tariffs don’t work. They’re being paid by consumers and businesses and farmers here in the United States.’”

Cooper also pitched himself as a politician who’s not only frustrated with Trump and Republicans. When asked by WRAL News on Friday about the ongoing government shutdown, he said he thinks both political parties share some blame.

“Washington is broken,” Cooper said. “… That's why I'm running. I think I can be a consensus-builder. I think everybody's at fault right now. And we need people who will go and try to work it out.”

Cooper added that while he opposes Trump’s policy on tariffs, “I will work with this president when I can.” 

He added: “I think the people of North Carolina want a strong, independent U.S. Senator.”

Whatley, however, questioned Cooper’s bona fides as an independent who will question both parties. Cooper backed former President Joe Biden in 2020 and, in 2024, was considered by Kamala Harris as a potential running mate.

“Roy Cooper was a mute when Joe Biden made life in North Carolina more expensive and more dangerous,” Whatley wrote. “Prices rose, grocery bills skyrocketed, housing costs soared, and healthcare became less affordable because of Democrats’ inflationary spending, higher taxes, and trade policies that put America last.”

Tariffs on the farm

Wilson County farmer Pender Sharp invited Cooper and others to his farm in Sims for the speech. His family has been farming the area since the 1800s, Sharp said, but he’s worried his son or grandson might not be able to carry on the legacy — and he blames Trump.

The tariffs Trump instituted have hiked prices on everything from farm equipment to fertilizer, Sharp said. Even just the boxes he stores corn in were $68,000 more expensive this year, he added, because of tariffs on China, where they’re made. And other countries — including China, previously a major market for American farm goods such as tobacco, pork and soybeans — have retaliated against Trump’s tariffs by stopping or slowing their own purchases of U.S. goods.

The end result, Sharp said, is farmers being squeezed on both sides of the ledger: They’re paying more on the front end and making less on the back end.

Similar tariffs and retaliations during Trump’s first term in office also hit farmers hard, leading Trump to spend $28 billion on bailout payments for farmers. And now, as he returns to heavy tariffs in his second term in office, Trump is reportedly considering yet another round of bailouts ahead of next year’s midterm elections, possibly in the range of $12 billion.

Sharp said he’d much rather the government just stop meddling in the international markets and let farmers like him go back to buying and selling like they used to, without tariff threats.

“I lost $3 million,” Sharp said in an interview after Cooper’s speech, referring to the trade wars in Trump’s first term. “And sure, I got about $50,000 or $60,000 [from the bailout]. But the taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for that. And I would’ve rather had the $3 million.”