Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Whatley made it official on Thursday, as he announced his bid for a GOP-held Senate seat in battleground North Carolina.
Whatley's campaign launch, at an event in his hometown of Gastonia, N.C., comes a week after President Donald Trump endorsed Whatley and urged him to run.
The move by the RNC chair also comes four days after Democrats landed their top Senate recruit of the 2026 cycle to date, as former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper declared his candidacy in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.
Cooper's campaign launch bolsters the Democrats' chances of flipping a key GOP-held seat as they try to take a big bite out of the Republicans' 53-47 Senate majority.
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Then-North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, seen speaking at the Democratic National Convention last August in Chicago, on Monday announced his candidacy for the Senate as Democrats aim to flip a GOP-held open seat. (IMAGN)
The showdown in North Carolina between Whatley and Cooper is expected to be one of the most competitive and expensive Senate battles in the country.
Whatley, a North Carolina native, served as the state's GOP chair for five years before Trump picked him in March of last year to serve as RNC chair.
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Trump called Tillis' announcement last month that he wouldn't seek a third six-year term in the Senate "great news."
Tillis is a GOP critic of the president, and Trump torched the senator last month for not supporting his so-called "big, beautiful" spending and tax cut bill.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced in June that he wouldn't run for a third term in the Senate when he is up for re-election in 2026. (Getty Images)
After Tillis' announcement, Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump was at the top of the president's list for the open seat in the Tar Heel State.
But last week Lara Trump, a North Carolina native who served as RNC co-chair alongside Whatley last year, announced that "after much consideration and heartfelt discussions with my family, friends, and supporters, I have decided not to pursue the United States Senate seat in North Carolina at this time."
Whatley, who served as chair of the North Carolina GOP before being elected last year as RNC chair, said recently in a Fox News Digital interview that the Senate showdown in the Tar Heel State is "going to be one of the marquee races in the country."
Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley stands for an interview with Fox News Digital on July 14, 2025, in Washington D.C. (Paul Steinhauser - Fox News)
"I feel very good that we're going to be able to hold on to that seat," Whatley predicted. "You know, we've been winning in that Senate seat down there for decades. The President has won that state three times in a row."
But beating Cooper, who has won statewide six times—four times as attorney general and twice as governor—won't be easy.
And Cooper's campaign touted this week that the former governor hauled in a record-breaking $3.4 million in fundraising in the first 24 hours of his campaign.
Democrats took aim at Whatley in advance of his campaign launch.
"Now, Whatley is heading back to North Carolina to sell Trump’s budget betrayal that took health care away from more than 650,000 North Carolinians and spiked costs for working families," Democratic National Committee communications director Rosemary Boeglin argued in a statement. Trump and Whatley’s toxic agenda will hang around Whatley like an albatross."