GOP's North Carolina Senate Pick Backed By Election Denier, Alleged Spouse Abuser
Michael Whatley
Republican Michael Whatley is turning to election deniers and alleged domestic abusers to help raise money for his U.S. Senate campaign in North Carolina.
According to an invitation posted on Instagram, Whatley will headline a September 25 fundraiser in Pinehurst, NC, co-hosted by Mike Hardin, the District Attorney of Moore and Hoke Counties who has been accused of emotionally and physically terrorizing his estranged wife.
Victoria Hardin said in May 2024 court filings that her husband pushed her to the ground and bruised her arm a few weeks after she asked him for a divorce. She also alleged that he hacked into her password-protected electronic devices, impersonated her in text messages, and withdrew $173,000 from their joint bank account without consent.
“Ms. Hardin had hoped that the parties would be able to resolve the legal matters arising from their separation privately and cooperatively,” Victoria Hardin’s attorney told the news outlet The Assembly. “Unfortunately, that was not possible. The pleadings and motions Ms. Hardin filed speak for themselves.”
Mike Hardin denies all of the allegations.
Another co-host of the fundraiser is Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who advised President Donald Trump on his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Mitchell reportedly participated in a phone call in which Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 ballots that would change the election results in that state.
In 2021, Mitchell was forced to resign from her law firm because of the call. The call was central to a criminal indictment brought against Trump in August 2023.
Whatley served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from March 2024 to August of this year. It is widely believed that Trump handpicked Whatley for that role because of his willingness to embrace election fraud conspiracies.
“Regardless of how these lawsuits come out around the country with the presidential race, we do know that there was massive fraud that took place,” Whatley said in a November 2020 radio interview. “We know that it took place in places like Milwaukee and Detroit and Philadelphia.”
The fundraiser will also feature Republican Rep. Richard Hudson, who currently serves as chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Both Hudson and Whatley have come under fire for supporting odious figures in the past, most notably failed gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, who has a long record of racist and misogynistic remarks.
Tickets for the fundraiser range in price from $250 to $14,000.
Whatley’s likely Democratic opponent is former Gov. Roy Cooper. An Emerson poll from August found Cooper leading Whatley 47 percent to 41 percent with 12 percent undecided. It is expected to be one of the most expensive U.S. Senate races ever.
Reprinted with permission from American Journal News.
