Embracing Trump and ‘America First,’ Michael Whatley files for NC’s Senate race
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Whatley filed for U.S. Senate, launched campaign stressing Trump endorsement.
- He committed to an America First agenda focused on jobs, safety and recovery.
- Whatley cited FEMA Review Council role and pledges to speed Helene recovery.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley completed his candidate-filing paperwork at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds on Tuesday, officially launching his bid in the high-stakes race for the seat being vacated by Sen. Thom Tillis, who is not seeking reelection.
Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chair who was endorsed by President Donald Trump in July, stressed his alignment with Trump as his reason for running.
On recent comments from critics on the right casting him as not MAGA enough, Whatley told reporters, “The reason I’m running for this race is because President Trump asked me to run in this race.”
“I have been recruited into this race by the president. I have been endorsed by the president and ultimately, in the Republican universe, that is the most important endorsement that you could possibly have,” he said. “I am honored to have his endorsement, and I’m going to fight for the America First agenda that he campaigned on and won on in 2024.”
Steve Bannon — a frontman of the Make America Great Again movement — this month is reported to have said Whatley “is not MAGA.”
“One of the reasons he’s running so poorly in North Carolina. If you talk to the MAGA folks down there, they’re just not enthusiastic about it,” Bannon said, according to the conservative Daily Haymaker.
In July, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he wants “friends in North Carolina” to “get Michael Whatley to run for the U.S. Senate.” In giving Whatley his “total endorsement,” he cited his efforts to get Trump elected in 2024, including wins in swing states, as reasons for his support, The News & Observer previously reported.
Whatley will face off in the primary election against former JAG officer Don Brown and Elizabeth Temple.
If Whatley wins, he would face the Democratic contender during the general election in November. That’s expected to be former Gov. Roy Cooper.
To beat Cooper, “It’s going to take good policy. Because good policy is good politics. It’s also going to take resources, but we need to go out, we need to prosecute this race. We need to fight every single day for every family and every community in North Carolina,” Whatley said.
Key factors
Whatley said the election this year was “going to come down to a couple of key factors.”
“No. 1 is absolutely going to be making sure that we have an economy that works for everybody in North Carolina. We need to create jobs, we need to raise wages. We need to make sure that we have trade policies, tax policies, regulatory policies that are going to help our small businesses, our manufacturers and our farmers.”
Second was making sure “that we’re going to keep our kids and our communities safe.” “Those are the issue sets that this campaign is going to be on, and that’s what I’m going to be focused on every single day, making sure that I am going to fight for every family and every community in North Carolina,” he said.
Helene response
Whatley and Cooper, who was governor when Helene struck last September, have both faced scrutiny over their roles in the recovery, as many residents in Western North Carolina are still awaiting aid. Both campaigns have targeted their opponents’ response.
Trump signaled out Whatley as a key player in recovery when he visited Western North Carolina in January. While there, he said he wanted states to handle disaster relief and direct the flow of federal dollars. He called for Whatley to lead Helene recovery efforts and pledged additional federal assistance. He avoided providing specifics about Whatley’s role, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. Whatley is also a part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Review Council created by Trump.
Asked what he would say to voters looking to him after Helene, he said he and Trump were “very focused on making sure that we can rebuild and recover from Hurricane Helene,” adding that the Trump administration had put over $6.5 billion toward relief.
“President Trump made it very clear he’s not going to forget Western North Carolina,” he said. “I am not going to forget Western North Carolina. I’m going to continue to work very hard to make sure that that region has what it needs to recover from the storm.”
Local governments have said federal reimbursements for recovery efforts have been heavily delayed, with some saying they had not seen a dime as of May. Democratic Gov. Josh Stein said in August the state had received little federal aid compared with others. Stein said that federal assistance from agencies such as FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Small Business Administration had so far equated to only 8% of the total $60 billion in damage Helene inflicted on Western North Carolina, The Charlotte Observer reported.
On being dubbed the “recovery czar” and asked to clarify his role, Whatley said “the title came from the Democrats,” but that Trump, during his trip, “asked me if I would be willing to help make sure that the needs of Western North Carolina were being relayed to the administration, and that the relief from the administration was going to get into Western North Carolina.”
On frustrations over the speed of recovery, Whatley pointed to a report from the state auditor’s office that found long delays and cost overruns by an agency created by Cooper, in repairing or rebuilding housing for people affected by hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018.
He added, “FEMA did not do well in the initial setup there. Certainly, the president is focused on making sure that we are not going to have this type of a recovery again.”
At the FEMA Review Council, he said, they were looking at “what changes structurally and systematically are going to be made, to make sure that we do not have an inadequate response.”
