Michele Woodhouse, a GOP party stalwart: “And you know, Michael Whatley has not denounced this at all” 

Washington Examiner: “Whatley has declined to answer”

New reporting from the Washington Examiner is investigating why Michael Whatley knowingly elevated a convicted child sex predator to leadership positions over the objections of Republicans in his own party.  

Washington Examiner: [Michele Woodhouse, a GOP party stalwart:] “‘Why did Michael appoint him to the Plan of Organization Committee … twice? And then kind of doubling down on the picnic […] Those are questions that Michael Whatley really should answer.’”

Washington Examiner: “So far, Whatley has declined to answer. His campaign did not respond to Secrets’s questions about how long he had known about West’s past or whether he regrets being involved with a convicted sex offender.”

Just last week, Harvey West, the convicted child sex predator, confirmed that Michael Whatley knew West was a convicted child predator and still appointed him twice to NCGOP leadership. 

Washington Examiner: How Michael Whatley’s Senate run is being upended by a sex offender’s picnic

Rob Crilly | March 31, 2026

• Now, Michael Whatley, North Carolina’s Republican candidate for Senate, who attended these fundraisers, finds himself embroiled in a scandal that couldn’t have come at a worse time. He is under pressure to answer why he twice appointed West to one of the state party’s top rule-making bodies and allowed him to hold such a central role.
• But it’s not just Democrats who are asking questions. It is infuriating to people such as Michele Woodhouse, a party stalwart in the state’s 11th District, where she ran for Congress in 2021.
• “There have been quite a few of us who have been ringing the bell on this for years,” she told Secrets. “We were just met with kind of ‘the good old boys network’ resistance and told it was no big deal. ‘Nothing to see here.’”
• “And you know, Michael Whatley has not denounced this at all,” she added.
• When Whatley took over as state party chairman in 2019, he twice appointed West to one of its most important bodies, the Plan of Organization Committee.
• “Why did Michael appoint him to the Plan of Organization Committee … twice? And then kind of doubling down on the picnic,” said Woodhouse, pointing out it had been renamed the North Carolina Judicial Picnic to mark its statewide impact.
• “Those are questions that Michael Whatley really should answer.”
• So far, Whatley has declined to answer. His campaign did not respond to Secrets’s questions about how long he had known about West’s past or whether he regrets being involved with a convicted sex offender.
• “Whatley keeps proving that when it really counts, he chooses corrupt elites over everyday people — even if it puts North Carolina families and their children at risk,” [Bates] said.

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