With the messy GOP Senate primary approaching next week, Republican attacks on Michael Whatley’s failure as the Hurricane Helene “recovery czar” are in the spotlight.

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“When Trump visited western North Carolina shortly after returning to the presidency, he said of Helene recovery, ‘I’d like to put Michael in charge of making sure everything goes well.’

“Democrats have since repeatedly pointed to the ‘recovery czar’ position and said Whatley should be doing more to accelerate slow-moving recovery funds in western North Carolina. That’s a message that Brown and Morrow have echoed on the campaign trail.

GOP Senate candidate Don Brown slammed Whatley for failing to deliver federal relief to Western North Carolina and that “it shows a lack of effectiveness.” Michele Morrow also blasted him, saying “Whatley was named as the czar, the recovery czar for North Carolina, a year ago this month, and he has been nowhere.”

Margaret Ackiss, a member of the North Carolina Republican Party’s 11th Congressional District executive committee, has called out Whatley’s failure, saying “it’s kind of funny to say ‘step down,’ because I never saw him step up.” 

Republican Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd have sounded the alarm over the delays in federal relief, with Tillis calling the response “incompetent” and Budd calling it a “problem” that “should not have been allowed.” 

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