Steve Bannon, “one of the architects of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement,” blasted DC insider and political hack Michael Whatley for “running so poorly” in North Carolina and emphasized that “the MAGA folks [are] just not enthusiastic” about his candidacy.
Additional reporting in the conservative Daily Haymaker highlights that GOP U.S. Senate candidate Don Brown is “doing about as well” as Whatley in a new poll, despite Whatley being backed by the DC establishment.
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Daily Haymaker: Bannon: Mike Whatley is “not MAGA”
November 15, 2025
- Steve Bannon – one of the architects of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement as well as one of the brains behind Donald Trump’s 2016 victory — is making it crystal clear to his fans that former RNC and NCGOP chairman Michael Whatley ain’t one of us.
- This makes Bannon the second Trump-connected figure to come out against Whatley (the alleged Trump choice for North Carolina’s US Senate seat). Trump’s first pick for national security advisor, General Mike Flynn, has publicly endorsed Whatley’s opponent in the March primary.
- Here’s Bannon on Friday’s edition of War Room: “[…] But Whatley is not MAGA. One of the reasons he’s running so poorly in North Carolina. If you talk to the MAGA folks down there, they’re just not enthusiastic about it.”
- The poll did two things: (1) confirmed that there is a choice for Republicans in the form of one Don Brown, and (2) Whatley AND Brown perform roughly the same in a head-to-head match with Cooper.
- What makes (2) so extraordinary is that Whatley has been buried in million$ worth of funding from the state and national GOP and has benefited from oodles of logistical help from both of those entities. Yet, he’s doing about as well as his opponent, Brown, who has been running on a shoe-string operation with NO party help.
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