Michael Whatley, Republican leader, officially enters US Senate race in NC
President Donald Trump declared last week on social media that Gastonia’s Michael Whatley would “make an unbelievable senator” for North Carolina.
On Thursday, Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, made his U.S. Senate campaign official from his hometown of Gastonia, with a backdrop of American and North Carolina flags behind him.
“I am very proud today to announce that with the complete and total endorsement of President Donald Trump, I am running to be the next senator from the great state of North Carolina,” Whatley said to shouts of his name from the crowd.
Dylan Watts, director of the North Carolina Senate Caucus, said getting Whatley into the race against former Gov. Roy Cooper “is like the Alabama-Auburn game.”
“It’s good,” Watts said. “It’s big. It brings up the excitement and raises the stakes. Everybody’s excited.”
Launching his 2026 candidacy sets up a potential race against Cooper that is already drawing national attention and expected to break fundraising records. Cooper took in $3.4 million in donations during his first 24 hours, the most of any Senate candidate in history. Though Whatley first faces off against three Republicans in the March 3 primary, he has the most name recognition.
“I think for us, Whatley is one of the few people who can actually put up a good fight with Cooper in terms of fundraising and that’s both with the state and the national base,” Watts said.
Cooper initially prepared to run against Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville. But last month, Tillis unexpectedly withdrew his candidacy, leaving Republicans scrambling to find someone new.
Watts said Whatley’s name will energize the base, and he already found an enthusiastic fan in Sen. Brad Overcash, a Republican from Belmont, who has known Whatley at least 15 years.
Whatley lives in Gastonia with his wife, Suzanne, with whom he has three college-age children.
“This means everything for the Republican side of things,” Overcash said. “I’m excited for the spotlight to be on Michael Whatley and on the Republican American First agenda here in North Carolina.”
“I’m interested for the spotlight to be shown on both of these candidates, because I’m confident when voters really look into the records of both of these gentlemen, look into the positions of both of these gentlemen, Michael Whatley is going to come out the winner,” Overcash said.
Whatley jumps in NC Senate race
Whatley, 56, has never run for public office, but Overcash said that’s part of his appeal.
“He has not spent a lifetime grooming himself for some position,” Overcash said. “He spent a lifetime serving his community, he spent a lifetime working for the conservative cause, he spent a lifetime pushing North Carolina forward, in volunteer capacities. But he’s certainly no stranger to major, major political cycles and campaigns and he wins them.”
Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Republican who represented North Carolina in Congress, also never ran for public office before being elected in 2002. Whatley served as her chief of staff for one of her six years in the chamber.
Whatley has been working in and around campaigns since he was a sophomore at Watauga High School in Boone. Those campaigns include that of former Sen. Jesse Helms, former President George W. Bush and Trump.
“Michael Whatley has been a winner everywhere he’s been,” Overcash said. “You can look at his early forays into politics with the various political leaders, to his getting involved as a volunteer in the first Trump primary. When he got involved things immediately looked up for then-candidate Trump.”
Trump won the 2016 election and Whatley oversaw his energy, environment and agriculture transition teams as he entered the White House. Whatley had served in the Department of Energy under Trump, and later became a lobbyist for the industry.
Overcash said Whatley’s work on Trump’s campaign inspired his colleagues to recruit him in 2019 to be chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party.
“He was a resounding success,” Overcash said.
Overcash said Whatley’s state chairman tenure was punctuated by breaking fundraising records and electoral victories. Two other items Republicans praise: Whatley honed in on allegations of voter fraud and enlisted poll watchers to monitor precincts during the 2020 election.
He pulled Trump’s second win in North Carolina, splitting the ballot between the Republican president and Cooper, the Democratic governor, who, unlike Trump, won his second term. Whatley helped Trump amplify the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen in other states.
Whatley’s work caught Trump’s attention, and in 2024, when Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel fell out of favor with the party, Trump nominated Whatley for the job. Whatley was serving as the party’s general counsel while simultaneously chairing the state party.
The national party agreed with Trump’s selection and made Whatley national chairman and co-chair with Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law.
“He is fantastic at everything he does, and he was certainly great at the RNC where, in the Presidential Election, we won every Swing State, the Popular Vote, and the Electoral College by a landslide,” Trump said on social media.
Trump won the popular vote by 1.5% and was the first Republican to do so in 20 years.
“Look at what he’s done at the RNC,” Overcash said. “It’s been a a wonderful term. Michael Whatley is a winner, and with him in the race, we’re going to win this.”
Whatley campaign launch
Whatley took the stage Thursday around 3:30 p.m. at Gastonia’s redeveloped Loray Mill filled with supporters. They grew louder as the opening chords of “Carolina in my Mind” played from two large speakers.
Some came in bright three-piece suits, others donned caps, bearing the name of the 47th president. Most clutched heavy cardstock signs, with “Whatley” splashed across the front in bold navy letters.
Many in the crowd said they were confident in Whatley’s chances, regardless of who Democrats put forward.
“It’s the best choice, and I think he’ll bring North Carolina values to the senate,” said Howard Collmar, a business owner and Gastonia resident who attended the event. “When you have Donald Trump behind you, I don’t know what could go wrong.”
To the right of the stage, a fabric backdrop stamped with the candidate’s campaign logo stretched across a metal frame — a makeshift photo booth where supporters posed and grinned.
“From experience, I know that Michael Whatley has the ear of President Trump,” said Republican Rep. Jimmy Dixon, who took the stage following a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. “Roy Cooper will continue to be obedient to the ultra-left wing commanders.”
A farmer from Warsaw in eastern North Carolina, Dixon said he was endorsing Whatley on behalf of himself and farmers in the state. Dixon said he’s confident Whatley would champion their interests on agricultural issues.
Republican lawmakers lined up one after another on stage offering support to Whatley’s campaign for the first 30 minutes.
When he took the stage, supporters thrust their signs into the air, clapped and cheered.
“I am truly honored that you guys would be willing to stand up here and help us launch this campaign,” Whatley told the speakers who endorsed him. “I also want to thank President Trump because without his vision, without his leadership, without what he has done over the last 10 years to remake the Republican Party into the party that is going to stand for every family and every community all across the country, we would not be sitting here today.”
Republicans in Washington also threw their support behind Whatley, including Senate Leader John Thune and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican.
“Michael Whatley has done an exceptional job leading the Republican National Committee through historic campaign successes, and I’m excited to endorse him in his bid to become North Carolina’s next U.S. Senator,” Thune said in the joint news release.
Whatley vs. Trump vs. Cooper
Both Whatley and Lara Trump had been floated as potential contenders to run in the U.S. Senate race after Tillis dropped out.
But after Lara Trump announced she would not run, the president offered Whatley his “complete and total endorsement.”
Less than 24 hours earlier, news broke that Cooper was preparing to launch his candidacy. That happened Monday. And any other Democrat who was in the race, or thinking about entering it, seemed to have backed off, including former Rep. Wiley Nickel, of Cary, who launched his run for Senate in 2023.
Whatley faces off against three opponents: Andy Nilsson, a retired businessman; Don Brown, a former JAG officer; and Brooks Agnew, an author and engineer.
Democrats immediately attacked Whatley, upon learning he planned to launch a campaign, saying his “tenure as the chair of the North Carolina Republican Party was a complete disaster.”
“Now, Whatley is heading back to North Carolina to sell Trump’s budget betrayal that took health care away from more than 650,000 North Carolinians and spiked costs for working families,” said Rosemary Boeglin, communications director for the Democratic National Committee. “Trump and Whatley’s toxic agenda will hang around Whatley like an albatross.”
Midterm challenges
Midterm elections historically have been difficult for the president’s party, putting Whatley at a possible disadvantage. He has closer ties to Trump than many other Republicans running.
And despite Trump winning North Carolina each time he ran, his approval ratings in the state are sinking. On July 3, Catawba College released a poll showing half of North Carolinians disapprove of Trump, with 43% strongly disapproving. The poll included disapproval by 59% of unaffiliated voters.
Unaffiliated voters make up North Carolina’s largest voting class. Since they’re not tied directly to a party, campaigns can be less confident in how they will vote.
However, Republicans are set to surpass Democrats for the first time in the state’s history as the second largest group of voters. Republicans control the majority in both the U.S. Senate and House, but only by a narrow margin, and can’t afford to lose any of their seats in the midterms.
And some of North Carolina’s far-right Republican voters weren’t excited to hear it was Whatley chosen to run for Senate.
Watts said that’s typical for any candidate to have a sect that doesn’t like him, but it’s hard not to like Whatley after getting to know him. Watts and Whatley grew close while Whatley served as NCGOP chairman and helped the caucus with anything from fundraising to finding people to stump for candidates on the campaign trail.
“I think in time, he’ll bring together our conservative side of the base and our more moderate side of the base,” Watts said. “And he could be able to get independents too.”
He added that he believes Whatley has the ability to excite Republicans, turn them out to the polls and help Republicans win down-ballot as well.
Sen. Thom Tillis leaves the race
While Whatley hasn’t won over the entire base yet, Tillis, 64, may have been even more polarizing for Republicans.
He announced his campaign in December. The former businessman launched his political career in 2007 and is credited with taking back the majority from North Carolina Democrats.
He became state House speaker in 2011 and stayed in that position until 2015, when taking his oath of office in the U.S. Senate.
From there, Tillis’ favor with the state party began to unravel as he reached across the aisle to pass major pieces of legislation like supporting marriage equality and helping craft the largest gun safety reform bill to pass in 30 years.
In return, Tillis was censured by the state party, with Whatley at the helm.
Despite that, it appeared party leadership planned to rally around Tillis in the midterms. But Tillis found himself at odds in June with Trump and Senate Republicans over a bill that threatens to strip 11.8 million Americans, including more than 650,000 North Carolinians, from Medicaid coverage. Tillis withdrew his candidacy saying he wanted to fight for the people of North Carolina without his reelection campaign being held as a bargaining chip.
That left Republicans scrambling to find someone to replace Tillis in the 2026 campaign.
Trump told reporters at the White House that Lara Trump was his first choice. But when she reneged on the idea, he threw his support behind Whatley.
Charlotte Observer metro intern Lila Hempel-Edgers contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 31, 2025 at 12:23 PM.
