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Exclusive: Gastonia, North Carolina – Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Michael Whatley officially announced his bid for the GOP-held Senate seat on the North Carolina battlefield.
At an event in his hometown of Gastonia, North Carolina, Whatley’s campaign launch comes a week after President Donald Trump supported Whatley and urged him to run.
“President Trump deserves an ally and North Carolina deserves a strong conservative voice in the Senate,” Whatley emphasized when he spoke to a crowd of family, friends and supporters. “I’ll be that voice.”
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The move by the RNC chair will also come four days after Democrats landed Senate recruits in the previous 2026 cycle. Former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper has declared his candidacy in the race to successfully retire Republican Sen. Tom Tillis.
And in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital a few minutes later, Whatley said, “This midterm election cycle will definitely be bigger. North Carolina will be the country’s Marquee Senate race.
RNC Chair Michael Whatley announces his running in the US Senate in North Carolina on July 31, 2025 (Fox News Digital/Paul Steinhauser)
The launch of Cooper’s campaign will strengthen the possibility that Democrats will overturn the key GOP Held seats as they try to take a big sip from the Republican Senate majority, who are 53-47.
And beating Cooper, a six-time statewide winner, four times more as attorney general and twice as governor — isn’t easy.
But Whatley, in his speech, targeted Cooper, linking the former governor to the left and right Democrats. This includes mayoral candidates for New York City Zohran Mamdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett, and Senators Bernie Sanders.
“Roy Cooper may pretend not to be the radical extremists who run the Democrats today, but he’s all on their agenda,” Wayley said in his speech.
And Whatley told Fox News Digital, “You need to look at his records. …We’re going to call him on his records. These are not just wild assumptions that we make.”
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper will speak at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August 2024. (image)
The showdown between Whatley and Cooper in North Carolina is expected to be one of the most competitive and expensive Senate fights in the country.
Cooper raised a record $3.4 million in the first 24 hours of his campaign.
“We’ll be the most expensive Senate race in the country’s history,” Whatley told Fox News. “But, we can raise the resources we need to tell stories, and we will work here in North Carolina for all 100 counties to be able to tell our stories.
“This is the story of how Republicans win in North Carolina. We listen to voters. Understand the issues they care about and put solutions on the table,” added Whatley. “That’s how Republicans have won Senate races in North Carolina since 2008. That’s how Donald Trump won three times in a row in this state.”
North Carolina native Whatley served as the state’s GOP chair for five years before Trump chose him to serve as the RNC chair in March 2024.
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Trump called for Tillis to be announced in June, and won’t ask for a third six-year term in the Senate on “Great News.”
Tillis is a president’s GOP critic, and Trump torched the senator last month for not supporting the “big and beautiful” spending and tax cuts bill.
North Carolina Republican Sen. Tom Tillis announced in June that he would not run his third term in the Senate when he went out for reelection in 2026 (Getty Images)
Following Tillis’s announcement, Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was at the top of the open seat presidential list in Tar Heal State.
However, recently, North Carolina native Lara Trump, who co-chaired the RNC with Whatley in 2024, announced that “after heartfelt discussions with my family, friends and supporters, I have decided not to pursue a US Senate seat in North Carolina at this point.”
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Democrats targeted Whatley ahead of his campaign.
“Now, Whatley has returned to North Carolina to sell Trump’s budget betrayal, stealing health care from over 650,000 North Carolinians, and surged the costs of working families,” Rosemary Boeglin, communications director for the Democratic National Committee, argued in a statement.
“Trump and Whatley’s toxic agenda hangs around Whatley like Albatross.”
And when Whatley announced his candidacy, the Cooper campaign blows up him.
“Michael Whatley is a DC insider and a massive oil lobbyist supporting policies that tore health care from North Carolinians and raise costs for middle-class families,” Cooper Campaign Manager Jeff Allen claimed.
“North Carolinians don’t need lobbyists as senators. Voters will make a clear choice among Whatley’s long career as a Beltway insider against Roy Cooper’s record of putting partisan party sects aside for North Carolina results.”
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in swing state in New Hampshire. He covers campaign trails from coast to coast. ”
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