The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Whatley, plans to run for the Senate in North Carolina with the backing of President Trump, after Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, declined to run herself, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.
The election to fill the North Carolina seat, which is opening up with the retirement of Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, at the end of his term, is expected to be one of the most expensive and contested races of 2026.
Democrats have recruited the popular former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper, who is planning to enter the race as early as next week.
Mr. Trump has taken a direct interest in a number of Senate contests to be held next year, including in North Carolina. With Mr. Whatley’s entrance, and with Mr. Trump expected to endorse him, Republicans hope to avoid a long and costly primary and can begin to focus on Mr. Cooper, one of the people said.
Mr. Whatley’s decision to run was first reported by Politico.
Ms. Trump and Mr. Whatley were chosen by Mr. Trump to lead the Republican National Committee last year after he became the presumptive Republican nominee. Ms. Trump stepped down in December.
Ms. Trump has been the subject of speculation in connection with other Senate races, including in Florida, where she lives, but has opted against running, this time choosing to continue with the weekly program she hosts on Fox News, which launched in February. An aspiring singer, Ms. Trump also released a new single this week.
On a trip on Air Force One earlier this month, Mr. Trump nodded to Ms. Trump’s Florida residency and seemed to indicate she would be unlikely to run for the North Carolina seat. “Lara Trump, I mean, that would always be my first choice, but she doesn’t live there now,” he said.
Mr. Tillis abruptly announced he was retiring from the Senate after saying he could not vote for the president’s expansive spending bill, which extends the Trump’s 2017 tax cuts but also includes items that the senator opposed, like cuts to Medicaid spending that are estimated to leave 10 million people without health care when they take effect. A former speaker in the North Carolina Statehouse, Mr. Tillis has been a tough campaigner who won two hard-fought races in 2014 and 2020 for Senate.
Mr. Whatley is a longtime Republican operative. He served as a chief of staff to former Senator Elizabeth Dole, was part of the recount team of former President George W. Bush in Florida and was chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party during the 2016 and 2020 presidential races.
In laying the groundwork for a run, Mr. Whatley met last week with Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, according to a Republican strategist aware of the meeting.
Mr. Whatley was Mr. Trump’s choice to lead the Republican National Committee in early 2024, when the former president was well on his way to capturing the party’s presidential nomination for a third time and the party chairwoman at the time, Ronna McDaniel, was facing an unwieldy rebellion from some of the president’s supporters.
Mr. Trump had spoken favorably about Mr. Whatley for years. His allies had often recounted how Mr. Whatley had recruited a large number of poll watchers in North Carolina in the 2020 election and how that had helped Mr. Trump narrowly carry the state.
The former president repeatedly said that he wanted Mr. Whatley to keep Democrats from “cheating” in the 2024 election nationwide.
Mr. Whatley is not expected to remain chairman of the Republican National Committee. It is not yet clear whom Mr. Trump might name to replace him.
Another Senate race that Mr. Trump has been personally involved in this week is for the open seat in Michigan. Representative Bill Huizenga, a Republican who had considered running in recent months, announced on Wednesday that he had decided against a campaign “in consultation with President Trump.”
The Republican leadership in the Senate has lined up behind Mike Rogers, a former congressman who narrowly lost a Senate race in 2024.
Shane Goldmacher is a Times national political correspondent.
Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The Times, reporting on President Trump.
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