NEW: Trump Endorsement Pours Fuel On NC GOP Senate Fight

President Donald Trump heads to battleground North Carolina on Friday, working to keep a Republican-held Senate seat in GOP hands as the party gears up for next year’s midterm elections.

Trump is set to headline an evening event focused on affordability alongside Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman and the clear frontrunner for the GOP nomination in the 2026 race to replace retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

Whatley is widely expected to face former two-term Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in what is shaping up to be one of the most closely watched Senate contests in the country, with Republicans defending their 53-47 majority. Prices and cost-of-living concerns are expected to dominate the race.

“President Trump won North Carolina all three times. 2016, 2020, and 2024… because he connects directly with the people of North Carolina, talking about the issues that they care about. So it is very important to have him on the ground,” Whatley said this week in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Republicans acknowledge that turnout can dip in midterm elections when Trump is not on the ballot, particularly among low-propensity voters who strongly support the president. That reality is driving GOP efforts to keep Trump front and center in 2026.

Whatley, a former state GOP chairman whom Trump selected to lead the RNC in 2024 and later encouraged to run for Senate, said the president’s presence in North Carolina is a major advantage.

“He is fantastically popular in North Carolina,” Whatley said. “He has a real affinity for the state. The voters…love him, and it’ll be very, very good to get him back in North Carolina.”

Republicans are also intent on framing the midterms as a clear choice between Trump’s agenda and a return to Democratic control in Washington.

“We’re certainly going to need him to be on the ballot,” Whatley said. “When you think about what happens if we lose the House, if we lose the Senate, if the Democrats take over, and they go right back to investigations and hoaxes and impeachments, that is really, truly the president and his legacy are going to be on the ballot.”

Democrats have attempted to make affordability their central talking point after strong performances in recent elections, but Republicans argue that inflation and high costs are the result of years of Democratic policies.

Whatley said Trump is actively pushing to reverse that trend.

“He is fighting right now to bring down gasoline prices… We’re fighting, you know, every day against the Fed, trying to get them to lower interest rates and make housing more affordable. And you know, there’s, there’s a fight every day with this administration to try and bring down the prices for everybody,” he said.

Looking ahead, Whatley said Trump’s policies are beginning to take effect.

“We’re seeing signs already that the economy is starting to tick up and is starting to take hold as the President’s policies are getting in place,” he said. “We need to make sure that we have the trade policies, the tax policies, the regulatory policies from this administration that are going to help our small businesses, our manufacturers and our farmers across North Carolina.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin offered a sharply different assessment, claiming Trump and Republicans are headed for trouble in 2026.

“Donald Trump has lost the economy, is losing his mind, and is going to lose the midterms,” Martin said in a statement ahead of the visit.

Whatley dismissed that view and said his campaign is focused on organization and turnout.

“We’re talking to every single community. We will be in all 100 counties across North Carolina, and we’re fighting for every single family,” he said.

He also stressed his long-standing alignment with Trump.

“Our voters know Donald Trump, and they know me. I’ve worked on his campaigns since 2016. President Trump won North Carolina in all three election cycles. So we know how to win, and we have the policies that are going to win,” Whatley said.

Turning to Cooper, Whatley accused the Democrat of siding with progressive positions out of step with North Carolina voters.

“Roy Cooper is on the wrong side of every 80-20 issue. He has fought harder for criminals, for illegal aliens, men who want to, you know, play in women’s sports and be in women’s locker rooms. Those are issue sets that he’s going to have to defend,” he said.

Cooper’s campaign pushed back, saying in a statement to Fox News Digital that the former governor “has spent his career fighting for North Carolina families by lowering health care costs and keeping their communities safe while Michael Whatley spent decades at the beck and call of DC politicians delivering for billionaires and special interests at the expense of the middle class.”

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