North Carolina State Senator Natalie Murdock and Fayetteville small business owner Brian Graybill sharply criticized Michael Whatley recently for launching his US Senate campaign in Washington, D.C., rather than in North Carolina.
Whatley, a longtime D.C. insider and former Big Oil lobbyist, held his kickoff event in the nation’s capital with wealthy donors and special interests — a move his critics say underscores where his priorities lie. Murdock and Graybill argue that while Whatley courts billionaires, North Carolinians are left to deal with the consequences of his record and policies.
“Michael Whatley is holding his campaign kickoff in Washington DC later today, which only makes sense after spending his career as a DC insider and Big Oil lobbyist. While he’s in DC cozying up to billionaires and special interests, he’s leaving behind countless North Carolinians who will suffer from his agenda,” Senator Murdock said. “His agenda guts Medicaid, ripping away health care from more than 650,000 North Carolinians – just to give tax handouts to the wealthiest Americans. It raises costs on working families.”
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” puts more than 670,000 North Carolinians at risk of losing their healthcare coverage, and rural hospitals will be at risk of closing down, further limiting healthcare access across the state. Whatley promoted the bill, calling it the “embodiment” of the GOP’s agenda, and said that the tax cuts that Republicans were able to pass were due to their cuts to Medicaid. This, in turn, would be the “cornerstone” of the RNC’s messaging around the federal budget bill.
Senator Murdock went on to point to Whatley’s lack of action regarding disaster recovery efforts in Western North Carolina, saying, “We can’t forget how Whatley has left behind Western North Carolina after he was tapped to lead the federal Helene recovery nine months ago and has done absolutely nothing to help.”
In January, Trump named Whatley the “recovery czar” for the impacted areas from Hurricane Helene. In the months since, residents say they haven’t seen Whatley “doing anything.”
Graybill echoed Senator Murdock’s concerns, pointing to Whatley’s support for Trump’s trade policies, which wreaked havoc on small businesses and farms across the state.
“While Michael Whatley kicks off his campaign with billionaires and special interests in Washington DC tonight, working families are here in North Carolina trying to get by. He wants to be a senator for DC and leave North Carolinians behind to face his dangerous agenda,” Graybill said. “As the President’s trade war drove us into chaos, Michael Whatley called it ‘record-setting in terms of effectiveness’ and called the market turmoil an ‘overreaction.’ If Whatley were ever here in North Carolina instead of in DC, I would tell him it’s not an overreaction. Federal policies that he cheers for are pushing small businesses and farms across the state to the brink because of skyrocketing costs.”
Back in April, Whatley defended Trump’s tariffs, calling the market chaos they caused an “overreaction” and saying, “I am not panicking” about the markets. While Whatley may not have been panicking, many working-class North Carolinians certainly felt a sense of panic as they watched their retirement savings slip away.
“It makes you realize how out of touch the current administration is with regular people,” Benajah Cobb, of Oregon, told NBC News.
Whatley’s campaign launch is emblematic of a larger pattern: prioritizing powerful interests in Washington while leaving North Carolinians to shoulder higher costs, fewer health care options, and a lack of federal relief.
