Charlotte Observer: “Michael Whatley has spent much of his campaign dodging and deflecting his own association with Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina.” 

A new column in the Charlotte Observer is slamming DC insider Michael Whatley for “try[ing] to distance himself” from his failed record as “recovery czar.” Whatley has “dodg[ed] and deflect[ed]” his responsibility to deliver federal relief to Western North Carolina, which has only received 12% of their needs in federal support. 

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Charlotte Observer: Michael Whatley is suddenly bragging about NC’s Helene recovery

Paige Masten | February 5, 2026

• Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley has spent much of his campaign dodging and deflecting his own association with Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina. 

• When President Donald Trump took office last year, he put Whatley “in charge of making sure everything goes well.” It hasn’t gone very well at all, but now Whatley has started bragging about it anyway. 

• Whatley bragged that “99% of the roads and the bridges have been rebuilt.” The roads part is true, but only 71% of public bridges have been repaired or replaced, according to a state dashboard. 

• It’s curious, though, that Whatley is now taking credit for the recovery effort’s successes given how hard he has tried to distance himself from its failures. 

• His campaign has eschewed the label of “recovery czar,” despite Whatley telling people on the campaign trail that Trump gave him that nickname. What Whatley’s campaign was willing to acknowledge is his more formal recovery role as a member of the FEMA Review Council, which Trump created to review FEMA and propose reforms to federal disaster response. But even that work has fallen short — the council’s report is months delayed, exacerbating uncertainty about FEMA’s future. 

• Whatley can’t have it both ways. Either he’s an unelected Gaston County man with very little influence over Helene recovery, or he’s played a valuable role in helping the Trump administration deliver much-needed aid to the region. So which is it? 

• It makes sense why Whatley would want to distance himself from the situation. By all accounts, trying to recover from this disaster has been a disaster of its own. Federal aid has still only covered a fraction of the total damage thanks to a backlog in delivering already-promised funds — something that’s frustrated both U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd. That funding is slowly trickling out, but it’s considerably delayed, and there’s still a lot of it outstanding. 

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