On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump called for Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley to step into North Carolina’s US Senate race. The endorsement sets up what is likely to be the most watched race of the 2026 midterm election.
“I have a mission for my friends in North Carolina, and that is to get Michael Whatley to run for the U.S. Senate,” Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday night. “He is STRONG on the Border, stopping Crime, supporting our Military/Veterans, cutting Taxes, and saving our always under siege Second Amendment. I need him in Washington, and I need him representing YOU!”
Whatley, originally from Watauga County, is also the former NCGOP chairman. He left the state party in 2023 to lead at the national level with Trump’s daughter-in-law, native North Carolinian Lara Trump.
Whatley became involved in politics young, volunteering as a high school student for Sen. Jesse Helms’ 1984 re-election. Whatley earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, followed by a master’s in religion from Wake Forest University, and law school with a master’s in theology at the University of Notre Dame. After law school, Whatley worked on George W. Bush’s legal team during the 2000 Florida recount and later served in the US Department of Energy as deputy assistant secretary.
In 2004, he became chief of staff to US Sen. Elizabeth Dole from North Carolina. He then worked as an energy lobbyist before working in the 2016 Trump campaign and becoming NCGOP chairman in 2019.
Trump’s endorsement follows confirmation Wednesday that Whatley plans to announces his candidacy sometime over the next week for the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Thom Tillis, who recently announced that he will not seek re-election.
Andy Jackson, director of the John Locke Foundation’s Center for Public Integrity, said that Trump’s endorsement and former Gov. Roy Cooper’s expected run for the Democratic nomination mean the 2026 primary election is all but over.
“Whatley will benefit from North Carolina’s slight Republican lean, although I expect Cooper will be ahead in early polling due to his higher name ID,” said Jackson.
On Monday, Axios first reported that Cooper is planning to announce a US Senate run next week. Cooper has spent nearly 40 years in office as a Democrat, serving as North Carolina’s governor for two terms, the state’s attorney general for 16 years, and in the North Carolina General Assembly from 1987 to 2001. During the COVID pandemic, Cooper rose to lead the Democratic Party’s state-level agenda, serving the national Democratic Governors Association as vice chair in 2021 and chairman in 2022.
A source close to the Cooper campaign said that promotional videos are in production ahead of a late-July Cooper Senate race announcement, and there is already a site up outlining his campaign messaging.
Whatley meantime has been quiet on social media amid swirling speculation, and background confirmations, of his US Senate candidacy. Lara Trump had been deliberating a run for US Senate, but is now expected to endorse Whatley, her RNC co-chair, in the coming days.
The post Trump endorses Whatley for US Senate first appeared on Carolina Journal.
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Author: CJ Staff
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