MEMORANDUM: Meet Michael Whatley

TO: Interested Parties

FROM: NCDP Chair Anderson Clayton

DATE: March 4th, 2026

With the general election for North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race officially underway, voters will continue to see over the next eight months that Michael Whatley is a DC insider and Big Oil lobbyist who is only looking out for himself, enriches himself at their expense, is out of touch with working families, and just plain wrong for North Carolina. 

Even with a Trump endorsement and after spending $6 million on his primary, Whatley couldn’t crack 65% of the vote, faring worse than Mark Robinson did in the 2024 gubernatorial GOP primary. It’s clear even Republican voters know that Whatley won’t look out for them in the U.S. Senate. North Carolina Republicans also got nearly 200,000 fewer votes than Democrats did in their respective U.S. Senate primaries.

CAN’T BE TRUSTED TO LOOK OUT FOR NORTH CAROLINIANS BECAUSE HE’S LOOKING OUT FOR HIMSELF: 

As a DC political hack and Big Oil lobbyist, Michael Whatley has spent his entire career looking out for himself at the expense of North Carolina families.

Whatley has cheered on every effort to raise health care costs to boost his own stock portfolio and give billionaires a tax break. He backed gutting Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians and called it a “huge win,” and supported actions that ended ACA tax credits, which sent premiums soaring for nearly a million North Carolinians. He didn’t just support these efforts – he pressured elected officials to back them.

• American Journal News: “Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley appeared to call for the elimination of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which provides health insurance to nearly 1 million North Carolinians.”

As a DC lobbyist, Whatley cashed in and spent his career helping Big Oil and energy companies make record profits as they drove up gas prices and energy bills for North Carolina families. Now, Whatley is backing policies that boost his oil and gas investments. Whatley got caught personally financially profiting after he cheered on the Trump administration’s pledge to increase oil production in Venezuela, spiking his oil and gas stocks by up to $63,000 in a single weekend.

• E&E: “Michael Whatley’s career as an oil lobbyist could haunt him in his bid to be North Carolina’s next U.S. senator.”
• AP: “Lobbying on behalf of oil and gas giants soon became his calling…”
• POLITICO: “What Whatley didn’t mention is that he and his family have up to a million plus dollars invested in three major oil companies that saw spikes in their shares after President Donald Trump said he would increase oil production in Venezuela”
• Raw Story: Busted: Republican cashed in on Trump’s Venezuela raid while publicly cheering it on

It’s no wonder Whatley still refuses to sell his individual stocks – he wants to make it as easy as possible for him to use a seat in the U.S. Senate to benefit his bottom line.

OUT OF TOUCH WITH WORKING NORTH CAROLINIANS:

From skyrocketing health care premiums to rising grocery costs, Whatley has no idea what working families are going through as they try to make ends meet. 

Whatley praised reckless tariffs, calling them “record setting in terms of […] effectiveness” and saying he supports them “wholeheartedly” – even as they drove up costs, hurt farmers across Eastern North Carolina, and devastated small businesses and North Carolina’s furniture industry.

• NC Newsline: RNC chair Michael Whatley defends Trump tariffs in NC, arguing that market chaos is ‘overreaction’
• WRAL: North Carolina soybean farmers face financial crisis amid trade war and China boycott
• WTVD: As new tariffs take effect, US consumers footing more than half the burden

Whatley is also failing to show up for Western North Carolinians as the federal Hurricane Helene “recovery czar.” After being tapped more than 13 months ago, Helene victims have still only seen 12% of their needs covered in federal support – and Western North Carolinians have called on him to resign or be replaced.

• Smoky Mountain News: Helene victims still waiting for Whatley
• WYFF: More than 100 WNC residents request to remove Michael Whatley from FEMA Review Council
• Charlotte Observer: “Some protesters accused Whatley of prioritizing his campaign over helping Western North Carolina.”
• Smoky Mountain News: [A NCGOP executive committee member]: “It’s kind of funny to say ‘step down,’ because I never saw him step up”
• News From The States: Trump’s FEMA council misses deadline for report on agency overhaul

Whatley has left behind service members and veterans, cheering on cuts to health care for more than 300,000 veterans across North Carolina and supporting millions of dollars of cuts to North Carolina’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Whatley called the cuts “vital” and even fundraised off of them – meanwhile, his campaign is being bankrolled by a company that has been accused of “defrauding” and “preying on” veterans.

• Cardinal & Pine: “Because of [budget cuts], Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has quietly delayed the cleanup at Seymour Johnson by five years…earlier this year [Whatley] called Elon Musk and DOGE’s Budget Cuts, quote, ‘vital.’”
• American Journal News: ​​Whatley campaign tied to company accused of preying on veterans

WRONG FOR NORTH CAROLINA: 

From his dangerous record to his ties to extremists, Michael Whatley is wrong for North Carolina, plain and simple. 

Whatley is staunchly anti-abortion, saying he was “proud” when Roe v. Wade was overturned and paving the way for North Carolina to pass a severe abortion ban with limited exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother, which Whatley called “responsible,” “reasonable,” and “mainstream.” And he spent his career elevating extremists like scandal-plagued Mark Robinson and cozying up to far-right interest groups. Whatley helped Robinson rise to power, praising him as a “man of the people” and the “greatest Lieutenant Governor in the United States.” 

• News & Observer: “Michael Whatley, chairman of the N.C. GOP, said he was proud of activism on the part of the anti-abortion movement.”
• The News & Observer: NC Democrats criticize GOP’s Michael Whatley for rise of Mark Robinson
• NC Newsline: Democrats hammer NC Senate candidate Michael Whatley for support of Mark Robinson
• American Journal News: Whatley runs for Senate as Robinson scandals resurface
• WRAL: GOP Senate candidate Whatley: ‘We don’t need separation of church and state’

The last thing North Carolina needs is a DC insider and Big Oil lobbyist going to Washington to do the bidding of the corporations that made him rich. North Carolinians know they can’t trust Michael Whatley in the Senate – and that’s why they’ll reject him at the ballot box this November.

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