{"id":11872,"date":"2025-07-31T20:17:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rncs-michael-whatley-officially-launches-north-carolina-senate-bid\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T20:17:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:17:39","slug":"rncs-michael-whatley-officially-launches-north-carolina-senate-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rncs-michael-whatley-officially-launches-north-carolina-senate-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"RNC\u2019s Michael Whatley officially launches North Carolina Senate bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley on Thursday officially launched his campaign for the North Carolina senate seat currently held by retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis.<\/p>\n<p>Whatley decided to jump in the race after Lara Trump, the president\u2019s daughter-in-law, passed on a possible bid, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/07\/24\/whatley-senate-north-carolina-trump-00473419\" target=\"_blank\"><u>Blue Light News reported<\/u><\/a> last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am humbled and excited to begin this campaign, and I would be honored to earn your vote, your support, and your prayers,\u201d Whatley wrote Thursday afternoon on X.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump announced his support for Whatley in a social media post last week, simultaneously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/07\/24\/trump-florida-state-senator-lead-rnc-00476655\" target=\"_blank\"><u>throwing his weight behind<\/u><\/a> Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters to take Whatley&#8217;s spot at the RNC, where Gruters currently serves as treasurer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mike would make an unbelievable Senator from North Carolia,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social. \u201cHe is fantastic at everything he does, and he was certainly great at the RNC where, in the Presidential Election, we won every Swing State, the Popular Vote, and the Electoral College by a landslide!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whatley\u2019s decision sets up what is likely to be a costly battle for Tillis\u2019 seat, with former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper\u2019s campaign already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/07\/30\/roy-cooper-north-carolina-fundraising-records-00482997\" target=\"_blank\"><u>breaking fundraising records<\/u><\/a> in its first 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats see the state as a promising window to pick up a seat in next year\u2019s midterm elections with Cooper \u2014 who has won statewide six times \u2014 likely to lead their ticket.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley on Thursday officially launched his campaign for the North Carolina senate seat currently held by retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis. Whatley decided to jump in the race after Lara Trump, the president\u2019s daughter-in-law, passed on a possible bid, Blue Light News reported last week. \u201cI am humbled and excited [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}