Despite long odds, Don Brown thinks he can be the GOP’s Senate nominee in NC | Opinion
It’s assumed that the 2026 Republican primary for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat will be decided by one vote – the vote of President Donald Trump.
And that vote is already in. Trump endorsed Michael Whatley, the Republican Party’s former state chair and its former national co-chair. “Mike would make an unbelievable Senator from North Carolina,” the president said in a July 24 social media post. “I need him in Washington.”
So, is the primary race over? Well, if Trump’s primary endorsement record is any guide, yes. But still there are some who say no. Don Brown, a lawyer, and a former U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General officer, has filed to run for the GOP nomination. So has Elizabeth Anne Temple of Smithfield.
I caught up with Brown by phone last Friday as he was preparing for a fundraiser for his Senate bid in Monroe.
Brown, 65 of Waxhaw, is a fervent Trump supporter who stands by Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was rigged. “If you think Joe Biden got 80 million votes, I’ve got tropical land in the Aleutian Islands to sell you,” he said.
But Brown parts with the president on who would be the best Republican nominee to take on the likely Democratic nominee, former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
“I’m hearing all over the state that Republicans are not enthusiastic about Whatley,” Brown said. “The Republicans who are behind him are doing so because Trump told them to.”
In this race, Brown said, Trump has picked the wrong candidate.
“I’m not sure what kind of advice he’s getting,” Brown said. Referring to losing Senate candidates Trump endorsed in Pennsylvania and Georgia, Brown said: “He endorsed Dr. Oz. How did that work out? He endorsed Herschel (Walker)... He’s made endorsements that haven’t worked out. ”
Brown’s logic is backward on that point. Whatley is by far a stronger general election candidate than Brown would be. Brown might draw far-right support in a primary, but he would be crushed in a general election, especially against a popular former governor.
Brown, who has written multiple books of military-themed fiction, said he is “a facts-based guy” when it comes to politics. But the facts are against him in a primary against a Trump-endorsed candidate.
Still, Brown may draw just enough attention to be a distraction for Whatley at a time when he needs to be fully focused on Cooper. The former GOP chairman needs to be careful. North Carolina’s Republican primary voters have shown a willingness to back kamikaze candidates based on their anti-establishment, MAGA views. Those voters put up hard-right lieutenant governors Dan Forest and Mark Robinson as gubernatorial candidates in 2020 and 2024. Forest lost by 4.5 percent. Scandal-plagued Robinson lost by more than 14 percent.
Brown thinks he can gain traction by casting Whatley as an establishment Republican while presenting himself as a patriotic populist. He’s campaigning on cutting the national debt and easing regulations on small farmers and small businesses. “I’m not a big business guy like your traditional Republican,” he said.
Whatley, meanwhile, pushes back against claims that he is not MAGA enough. He told reporters last week, “I have been endorsed by the president and ultimately, in the Republican universe, that is the most important endorsement that you could possibly have. 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.”
Brown said he will campaign on lowering the cost of living.
“I haven’t seen any plan that Whatley has. All I’ve heard is ‘Trump, Trump, Trump.’ We might love Trump, Trump, Trump, but ‘Trump, Trump, Trump’ is not a plan on how you are going to help North Carolinians afford the grocery bill at Harris Teeter or the Food lion. So there you go,” he said.
So far, Whatley is taking a low-key approach. He may follow the strategy of Ted Budd, who won the GOP’s Senate nomination in 2022 on the strength of Trump’s endorsement and then ran a quiet but successful general election campaign aimed at not alienating independent voters.
But first, Whatley needs to win the GOP nomination. Brown claims that polls show him to be as equally viable a candidate against Cooper as Whatley would be. Brown pointed to a November Carolina Journal poll that showed him losing a head-to-head contest against Cooper by roughly the same margin as Whatley. But all the poll actually shows is how a generic Republican would fare against Cooper.
Brown may lack recognition and resources, but he does not lack confidence. He notes that Trump won in 2016 when few thought it was possible. Yes, but Trump has won the presidency twice — and carried North Carolina three times. In Republican primaries, his nod is decisive.
Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@newsobserver.com
This story was originally published December 9, 2025 at 4:30 AM.