President Donald Trump will visit North Carolina next week to campaign for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley.
Whatley announced Friday that Trump will deliver remarks Wednesday in Gastonia, where Whatley lives.
Other WRAL Top Stories
The event will be held at Gastonia Municipal Airport. WCNC in Charlotte reported Trump is scheduled to speak around 7 p.m., according to the White House.
“President Trump needs an ally in the Senate and North Carolina needs a fighter,” Whatley wrote in a post on X.
Whatley recently spoke in Dallas at the Republican National Committee's midterm convention alongside Trump.
The speech offered Whatley an opportunity to reach a national conservative audience and gin up enthusiasm for his campaign among the GOP faithful at a crucial juncture in the race — as he trails Democratic nominee Roy Cooper in fundraising and in the polls. Libertarian Shannon Bray and Green Party candidate Michael Dublin are also running for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who isn’t seeking reelection.
North Carolina is a closely divided state — Tillis won election in 2014 and 2020 despite receiving under 50% of the vote each time — and oftentimes candidates seek to appeal to the moderate voters who swing between parties and can help decide elections here.
Michael Bitzer, the Catawba political science professor who conducted the poll, said Wednesday that those numbers make it clear that if Whatley wants to win, he needs to work on “generating enthusiasm and energy among Trump base voters to show up.”
Whatley’s chances in November could largely come down to how conservative voters feel about Trump’s own record, Bitzer added. Trump’s approval ratings have declined considerably during his second term.