NC Senate showdown escalates as Trump rallies behind Whatley to keep GOP seat

President Donald Trump heads to battleground North Carolina on Friday as he aims to keep an open Senate seat, previously held by a Republican, in GOP hands in next year’s midterm elections.

Trump will hold an evening event on affordability as he teams up in the crucial southeastern state with Michael Whatley, a former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair and clear frontrunner for the GOP Senate nomination in the 2026 race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.

Whatley is likely to face off next year against former two-term Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in what’s expected to be one of the most expensive and crucial Senate battles in the country, as the GOP works to hold its 53-47 majority in the chamber. And rising prices will be a top issue on the campaign trail.

“President Trump won North Carolina all three times. 2016, 2020, and 2024… because he connects directly with the people of North Carolina, talking about the issues that they care about. So it is very important to have him on the ground,” Whatley emphasized this week in a Fox News Digital interview.

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Low propensity MAGA voters and other Trump supporters don’t always head to the polls in elections when the president’s not on the ballot, which is a major concern for Republicans heading into next year’s midterms.

That’s why Whatley, a former state GOP chair whom Trump handpicked in 2024 to run the RNC and urged this summer to run for the Senate, would love to see the president return to North Carolina numerous times next year.

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“He is fantastically popular in North Carolina,” Whatley said of Trump. “He has a real affinity for the state. The voters…love him, and it’ll be very, very good to get him back in North Carolina.”

But more importantly, Whatley and other Republicans are aiming to frame the 2026 elections as a referendum on Trump and his agenda.

“We’re certainly going to need him to be on the ballot,” Whatley emphasized. “When you think about what happens if we lose the House, if we lose the Senate, if the Democrats take over, and they go right back to investigations and hoaxes and impeachments, that is really, truly the president and his legacy are going to be on the ballot.”

With inflation remaining persistent this year, Democrats have stayed laser focused on the issue of affordability, which fueled them to decisive victories in last month’s 2025 elections and over performances in a slew of special elections this year.

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The same issue that boosted Trump and Republicans to sweeping ballot box victories in 2024 is now dragging the president’s approval ratings on the economy to record lows.

Whatley argued that the president “is fighting right now to bring down gasoline prices… We’re fighting, you know, every day against the Fed, trying to get them to lower interest rates and make housing more affordable. And you know, there’s, there’s a fight every day with this administration to try and bring down the prices for everybody.”

And looking ahead to next year, Whatley said, “We’re seeing signs already that the economy is starting to tick up and is starting to take hold as the President’s policies are getting in place. We need to make sure that we have the trade policies, the tax policies, the regulatory policies from this administration that are going to help our small businesses, our manufacturers and our farmers across North Carolina.”

But Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin sees Trump and Republicans headed for a ballot box disaster.

“Donald Trump has lost the economy, is losing his mind, and is going to lose the midterms,” Martin said in a statement ahead of Trump’s stop in North Carolina.

Whatley has been busy crisscrossing North Carolina and highlighted that “we’re talking to every single community. We will be in all 100 counties across North Carolina, and we’re fighting for every single family.”

And he plans to hold tight to Trump.

“Our voters know Donald Trump, and they know me. I’ve worked on his campaigns since 2016. President Trump won North Carolina in all three election cycles. So we know how to win, and we have the policies that are going to win,” Whatley emphasized.

And pointing to Cooper, who won election and re-election four times as attorney general before becoming governor, Whatley charged that “Roy Cooper is on the wrong side of every 80-20 issue. He has fought harder for criminals, for illegal aliens, men who want to, you know, play in women’s sports and be in women’s locker rooms. Those are issue sets that he’s going to have to defend.”

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But Cooper’s campaign countered, saying in a statement to Fox News Digital that the former governor “has spent his career fighting for North Carolina families by lowering health care costs and keeping their communities safe while Michael Whatley spent decades at the beck and call of DC politicians delivering for billionaires and special interests at the expense of the middle class.”