WHAT(ley) ???
Given what we found on X last night, we were expecting much different news than what we got hit with.
THAT is congressman Pat Harrigan and his wife visiting The White House. Had they met with Trump about the Senate run? Had Trump extended his blessing upon a Harrigan Senate campaign? I could find nothing clarifying these pics or the ‘thank you’ from Mrs. Harrigan.
Yet, we woke today to be greeted with the news that, of all people, Michael Whatley — who can most pleasantly be described as an unaccomplished schlub — will be running for the US Senate from North Carolina in 2026. I had heard whispers about this, but couldn’t accept it as serious.
Whatley has been a paid political hack and a lobbyist. That resumé makes Ted’s gun shop and firing range look a lot more admirable.
It’s always a red-flag when someone steps forward from the ranks of state party HQ or the RNC. Both of those entities have been hostile to conservatives and conservatism for longer than I’ve been alive. Barry Goldwater fought them. Ronald Reagan fought them. Jesse Helms fought them. All three of those guys were key to convincing Eastern North Carolina that it was okay to step across the aisle, vote Republican, and make the state competitive again. Charlotte’s uptown crowd didn’t pull that off.
I’ll say it again — SOMEBODY is giving President Trump horrible advice about North Carolina. Much of that advice seems to benefit immensely the public-private partnership / cabal running the show in Raleigh.
Former RNC and NCGOP operative Chris LaCivita is apparently down in Texas trying to save RINO John Cornyn from a spirited primary challenge. Now, that team is trying to keep the Tillis legacy alive and well in our state.
Kinzinger-Cheney disease.
Like his hero Thom, Mike Whatley is not a conservative. Thom and Susan Tillis have mentored Whatley and encouraged his rise through the party ranks for years.
Whatley has lobbied for the solar subsidy boondoggle. He also passionately bad-mouthed the former J6 prisoners that ended up being pardoned by Trump. Followed right along in the footsteps of his hero Thom.
Also like Thom, Whatley has peddled the nonsense that North Carolina is a *purple state.* That means most of us like leaders who float around somewhere between the Democrat platform and the Republican platform.
The original GOP majorities that took over in Raleigh were conservative. After the Tillis team got done with them, many had been run off and replaced with folks who were cool with spending, maybe, ten percent less than the Democrats want.
Believe it or not, people appreciate someone who speaks honestly and openly, and then does what he says he will once elected. THAT got Trump three victories in North Carolina. It also got Jesse Helms five statewide wins.
Election Integrity.
Unnamed DC sources claim Whatley “fought” for election integrity. What does that mean? *He made a statement one time?*
Whatley’s last reelection bid for state party chairman featured voting tabulation software that crash
ed spectacularly and produced highly-suspect results. (All while the rest of the country was calling for and / or using paper ballots.) The Whatley cabal shut down the complaints and calls for investigation. They moved forward as though nothing ever happened.
Somebody in DC has clearly been looking out for Mike Whatley. He was made general counsel of the Republican National Committee even though he had no law license.
Engineered THREE Trump victories in North Carolina.
That’s the worst piece of bull-crap I’ve heard in reference to Whatley and his proposed Senate campaign. Donald Trump would have won our state if Whatley moved to The North Pole for a year and the entire NCGOP staff in Raleigh took the year off and locked the doors.
This website has more name ID from Murphy to Manteo than Michael Whatley does. But I’m not demented and delusional enough to claim credit for three victories by Trump. That was all The Boss’s handiwork.
Fundraising.
It’s clear the DC / RNC crowd loves them some Mike Whatley. For the past several years, the NCGOP treasury has been padded with pass-through funds from the RNC and shakedown proceeds from our friends over in the General Assembly. If you factor out those two sources, fundraising for the state party during the Whatley era was really quite abysmal.
No bench.
For years, the state GOP has done a lousy job of cultivating potential candidates for statewide runs. North Carolina Democrats have three candidates standing by – Roy Cooper, Jeff Jackson, and Josh Stein – capable of running a serious, credible statewide race.
Who does the NCGOP have? No one. And you have the ruling clique, Mike Whatley, Robin Hayes, and current state chairman Jason Simmons to thank for that.
Cooper is stepping off the bench for what looks to be a very serious run. He, Jackson, and Stein all got to where th
ey are by taking little to no fire from the ruling NCGOP cabal. So, they are hardly damaged goods, and sitting quite pretty.
Trump will not be on the ballot. Whatley has only run smaller-scale, tightly controlled campaigns for party office.
The GOP nominee will be facing off against a guy with six prior – and successful – statewide runs under his belt.
Will Cooper face a worthy adversary in 2026?
If you want to read more about the US Senate candidate DC wants to burden us with, click here.
Let’s not forget who buried the 53 county censures of Thom Tillis.
Let’s not forget who appointed a then Burr staffer and now Tillis staffer to the Resolutions Committee against my wishes as the then NC11 District Chair, with the sole purpose of killing the censure from the floor.
Let’s not forget who completely buried the 2023 NCGOP State Convention resounding censure of Tillis.
NOT one press release! NOT one comment!
Let’s not forget who appointed a convicted sex offender to the NCGOP Plan of Organization committee multiple times!
Or that a hundred county organizations and state VC Miriam Chu were the real difference makers in the 2020 NC general election, while this DC time server fooled Trump into thinking he’s the reason.
Would we assume Lara has his ear?
Certainly know the ncgop does!
It’s NOT the first time Trump has made horrible decisions to support candidates. It’s NOT his strong suit.
If I’m not excited about Tillis, why would I be excited about Mr. Restless Leg Syndrome?
I can think of two, perhaps three present or former county chairs who despise Whatley for taking full credit for what was chiefly THEIR work in the 2020 election. I’m pretty sure they’ll never vote for this pretender, judging by their comments made to me at one time or another. I wonder if Trump has even looked to see how Whatley polls in NC before blindly jumping in with an endorsement.
Michael Whatley committed a major act of political malpractice as RNC chairman that should preclude him as a credible candidate. That was being asleep at the switch on the presidential debates, thus letting Team Biden dictate how they were set up. That allowed Team Biden to schedule that ultra-early test debate in time to replace him if they had to. Without that early debate, the Democrats would have been stuck with Biden in November as the first debate would have been on a normal schedule after both conventions. If the Democrats were stuck with an obvious out-of-it Biden, Republicans would have cleaned house up and down the ballot. The reason that did not happen was because Michael Whatley was asleep at the switch on organizing debates. Whatley’s incompetence on debates also saddled us with even more partisan hack Democrat “moderators” than those annointed by the old Presidential Debate Commission which were bad enough.
Whatley’s predecessor, Ronna Romney McDaniel was awful as RNC chair, but about the only good thing she did was getting RNC to withdraw from the Democrat-tilting Presidential Debate Commission. However, once that was done, it required follow-up from RNC to directly negotiate debates with the DNC. This is where Whatley incompetently failed to engage, leaving an opening for Team Biden to seize effective control of the debates.
This major screw up by Whatley should be remembered by Republican activists and should not be rewarded with higher office.
Congrats on your appointment to the Beauf Co Bd of Education. Good lord is there work to do there…..mighty, mighty heavy lifting.
There are three components in a competitive resume for U.S. Senate- strong statewide name recognition, relevant public service experience, and serious fundraising ability (some of which stems from the first two components). There are some cases of celebrity success in running for Senate- highly accomplished business personailites (like Pete Ricketts or Tim Sheehy), famous coaches (like Tommy Tuberville), and former military leaders (like Joni Ernst and Tom Cotton). But these are exceptions to the rule, and most of these at least had some referenceable public service experience.
No one in recent history has been elected to the U.S. Senate without some meritorious service or accomplishments that resonate with the voters of the state. And, while certainly desirable, endorsements by our President are not the difference maker in a Senate race, even for celebrities- just ask famous TV celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Michael Whatley has never been elected to public office at any level.. He has never run a statewide campaign for public office. While he has developed donor contacts in his tenure as NCGOP Chair and RNC Chair, he is not a particularly compelling political fundraiser. Whatley has been a lobbyist, which many citizens find distasteful at best. Whatley has never put his law degree to use. Whatley has no successes in private business. Whatley has never served in the military. Whatley has no particularly meritorious accomplishments in his work as a junior staffer for Elizabeth Dole or Donald Trump. His track record as NCGOP Chair is average at best- particularly in recruiting and electing Republicans in important statewide races. As RNC Chair for a few months, he presided over a loss of seats in the U.S. House and a modest gain in the U.S. Senate. Most significanty, he helped Trump’s presidential sweep of the swing states, for which he deserves some staff credit. Whatley has no record of legislative advocacy- on any issues. He takes no stances on issues of importance, other than parroting Trump’s talking points and echoing Trump’s accomplishments. That will haunt him in candidate forums and on the campaign trail where extemporaneous debate and command of the issues will be pivotally important.
One of the biggest challenges Whatley will face is that he is not a charismatic speaker. He can memorize and deliver a speech or talking points, but he lacks the passion and power of persuasion that come natural to successful politicians. He will have great difficulty selling his candidacy, particularly because he is so unpopular within the base of the NCGOP. (His association with and dogmatic defense of Thom Tillis and his refusal to reform the state party for 5 years will cost him critical votes among the very people who turn out in a primary.)
In the 2026 NC race for U.S. Senate, the little things will make a big difference. That’s why Whatley isn’t truly capable of becoming a U.S. Senator. For example, prior to the 2020 election Whatley told me the top priority race for him was getting Thom Tillis re-elected to the Senate (rather than re-electing President Donald Trump). Whatley’s game plan failed to deliver two Republican-heavy counties for Trump (Watauga and New Hanover- home of Lara Trump). Trump’s statewide margin of victory dropped from 3.66% (in 2016) to 1.34% (in 2020). Trump wasn’t any less compelling across NC in 2020, Whatley and his team were just that much less effective delivering votes here.
Early polling here is a pretty good indication of just how unpopular Mr. Whatley is among GOP rank and file. Right after his announcement and the Trump endorsement, one poll showed him in second place (17 points behind Don Brown) at 39% of the vote. A couple of days later, another larger poll of activists showed him with just 21% of the vote (as compared to Don Brown’s 73%). While there are a number of GOP County Chairs who will promote and support Whatley, there are quite a few who will quietly support another candidate. Most County Chairs will obey party rules and stay neutral on the Senate race.
All in all, the March NCGOP primary for U.S. Senate is shaping up to be a very interesting race. Despite President Trump’s attempt to sway voters to support Whatley, rank and file Republicans will insist on nominating someone they think will best represent their values and concerns, someone who actually has a chance to beat Roy Cooper in November.
Thom Beddow, the Moore County GOP chair and poster boy for the Uniparty Establishment, will give Whatley 100% support.
It will be as successful as Beddow’s endorsement of four School Board candidates in last year’s election, all of whom lost their respective races. (Note: Every single one of them lost, most by embarrassingly huge margins, to include Bob Levy, the former chair of both the MC GOP and the MC School Board)
Bottom Line: In Moore County, the county GOP has lost so much credibility that their endorsement carries little to no weight with the conservative-minded voters who are in the majority.
Well you left out the cheating he did four years ago to maintain his chairmanship. The sycophants in this party are so blind they cant see the corruption for the trees.
You left out how whatley and the fired goofball dunderhead warren claimed credit for all the election integrity successes that NCEIT had.
Plainly stated this party and its leaders are weak and feckless.
I will not support Whatley.
it will take a very FORMIDABLE opponent (highly visible, name recognized, experienced with results and very deep coffers to defeat coop. This race will almost be as if coop is the incumbent.
I don’t find any of the candidates meeting the above criteria; therefore, we will lose this seat.
We now have a history of losing. We lost the entire COS to dems. RURAL NC is the ONLY hope any republican has to defeat a dem. The margins are changing and RDU, Greensboro/Triad, Mecklenburg areas are becoming very difficult to offset.
I reviewed the Forest/coop results. If I recall, Mecklenburg dropped 450k+/- votes to 170k +/-;
That’s a 280k vote swing to be made up in ONE county. I don’t recall Forest doing even better in Triad, RDU areas. Essentially, a candidate begins 500k votes down from these 3 areas alone.
Having a well-known candidate is critical.
We don’t have 1 in the 2026 senate race. Forest ran abysmal and Robinson even worse.
Will you please get your head out of the sand? We DO have a strong, legitimate CONSERVATIVE in the race! His name is Don Brown! If you can’t find him and his campaign online I feel sorry for you!
Cooper has never had a tough election ! He’s a smooth operator who has known when to run. This will be an election like he’s never faced. He’s a lifer politician, and now his 40 year record will be open season. The question is will he be Terry Sanford or Jim Hunt ? Sanford was an elder statesman type candidate who had an easy time with Jim Broyhill. Then Lauch Faircloth cleaned his clock 6 years later. Hunt , like Cooper had a record to be gone over. Hunt’s hubris led him to believe he would surely beat Helms. Tom Ellis and Carter Wrenn saw to it that Hunt’s record as a flip flopper was exposed and tied him to all the extreme national liberals who weren’t liked in North Carolina. I suspect Cooper will get similar treatment, and be tied to Biden , Kamala, Pelosi , Gavin Newsome and on and on. It wont be pretty. Whatley will happily be tied to President Trump. Who from national Democratic side will Cooper get down here to campaign for him ? Adam Schiff ? Chuck Schumer ? Maybe Hunter Biden can stop by. Running for Governor of North Carolina and US Senator are two VERY different races. Ask Governor Hunt.
We don’t have a Jesse any longer.
He ran strong against Hunt and his machine and Dan Blue (?) if I recall correctly.
Jesse told facts and surrounded himself with an army and generals to work.
coop has baggage and a horrid covid record (Mandy and her idiotic ‘medical’ calls).. Shut down bars, salons, barbers, small biz and many never recovered. And, yet he marched with the rioters, looters and BLM proudly in Raleigh, unmasked, while Mandy & Co were making threats to others who dared unmasked. Schools closed and still recovering from the learning gaps missed and destroyed with ‘home learning via web/zoom meetings’
coop HAS A RECORD. Will it be shown non-stop in ads???????
Anything less than a new Jesse Helms will result in a paint it blue party.