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Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley officially announced his bid for North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race, shaking up what is expected to be one of the most competitive seats up for grabs in the 2026 midterms.
Whatley, who launched his campaign at an event in his hometown of Gastonia, North Carolina, comes one week after President Donald Trump endorsed the idea of his candidacy.
“President Trump deserves an ally and North Carolina deserves a strong conservative voice in the Senate. I will be that voice.”Whatley said at his campaign kickoff, Fox News reported.
He also included links to his campaign website in a post to his X account.
Whatley, who has served as the RNC since early 2024, is running to succeed outgoing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, whom President Trump has frequently bashed for his opposition to legislation like the Big Beautiful Bill.
Rather than support Tillis, the president explained he would instead back his potential primary challenger, prompting Tillis to announce his retirement.
Whatley, along with the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was named as a potential replacement for the retiring senator. However, after Lara Trump announced she would not seek the Republican nomination, President Trump publicly backed Whatley shortly thereafter, writing in a post to Truth Social that the RNC chairman “would make an unbelievable Senator from North Carolina.”
“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! But I have a mission for my friends in North Carolina, and that is to get Michael Whatley to run for the U.S. Senate,” the president wrote Thursday.
“He is STRONG on the Border, stopping Crime, supporting our Military/Veterans, cutting Taxes, and saving our always under siege Second Amendment,” he added.
President Trump continued, “So, should Michael Whatley run for the Senate, please let this notification represent my Complete and Total Endorsement.”
If Whatley were to win and step down as RNC chairman, President Trump would endorse Joe Gruters, the incumbent RNC treasurer, to succeed him.
Whatley’s announcement comes just days after Democrats landed former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper, whose candidacy is expected to make the race competitive.
Cooper is expected to be a formidable candidate, having won statewide office six times—four times as state attorney general, and twice as governor, Fox News reported.
Democrats are also hoping Cooper will help them flip a Republican-held seat in a swing state, eating away at Republicans’ current 53 to 47 Senate majority.
However, Whatley painted Cooper as far-left, attempting to make him unelectable in a swing state.
“Roy Cooper may pretend to be different from the radical extremists that run today’s Democrat Party, but he is all on their agenda,” Whatley said in his campaign announcement.
