RNC Chairman Michael Whatley plans to run for Senate in North Carolina, with Trump's backing

Michael Whatley, chairman of the national Republican Party, plans to run for an open Senate seat in North Carolina in 2026, with the blessing of President Donald Trump.

Democrats see the race as their top chance to flip a seat in the midterm elections as they try to regain control of the Senate. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, after clashing with Trump, recently announced he would not run for a third term.

Whatley's decision was confirmed by two people familiar with his thinking. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly before an official announcement and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Trump asked Whatley, who leads the Republican National Committee, to run, according to one of the people.

Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, had been mulling a campaign. She served as co-chair of the RNC last year and currently hosts a show on Fox News Channel. But also lives in Florida and would have had to move back, with a young family, to her home state if she were to run. She had previously declined to run for Senate in North Carolina in 2022 and in 2024 took herself out of the running to fill the term of former Florida Sen. Marco Rubio after he became Donald Trump's secretary of state.

Politico first reported news of Whatley’s plans.

While Lara Trump had been seen as having the right of first refusal in the North Carolina race due to her relationship with the president, Whatley is considered by national Republicans to be a strong contender, thanks partly to the large fundraising network he has cultivated as RNC chair and his perceived loyalty to Donald Trump.

He is a well-known name in the state, having served as GOP chair there, and has no voting record that could be used against him by Democrats.

The race is expected to be contentious in a state Trump carried by 3.2 percentage points in 2024. Democrats have been encouraging former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper, who is seen as a formidable candidate by both parties, to run. A Cooper adviser, Morgan Jackson, would not confirm on Wednesday that Cooper had made a decision to run, but said “Cooper would be making his intentions known in the coming days.”

First-term Rep. Pat Harrigan, a West Point graduate and former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan and later became a defense-products manufacturer, was also seen as a potential Republican candidate.

Harrigan had previously said he would immediately back Lara Trump if she ran. He wrote that “there’s lots of excitement around the 2026 Senate race, but let me be crystal clear about something: if ⁦‪@LaraLeaTrump⁩ enters this race, I’ll be the first to endorse her and the first to fight for her victory.”

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Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.