Tag: michael whatley
Harvey West and Michael Whatley

North Carolina Senate Nominee Named Sex Offender To Top GOP Posts

Michael Whatley appointed sex offender Harvey West to high-ranking positions in the North Carolina Republican Party. Now, it appears that West may have had access to young adults while serving in those roles.

Whatley led the North Carolina Republican Party from 2019 to 2024. The Asheville Watchdog reported that Whatley appointed West to two different committees during this period: the party’s 1st Congressional District Committee and its Plan of Organization Committee.

In 2000, when he was 28 years old, West pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a minor. He was accused of having sexual relations with two 14-year-olds and one 16-year-old. He served a six-year prison sentence and was required to register as a sex offender upon release.

West maintains that he is innocent and only pleaded guilty to avoid a longer sentence. He told PolitiFact that he was open about his criminal record with the North Carolina Republican Party before being appointed to the roles.

It can now be confirmed that Whatley presided over nearly 30 North Carolina Republican Party State Central Committee meetings where both West and members of the North Carolina Teenage Republicans were in attendance.

Whatley’s official Facebook page uploaded a photo from one of these meetings in August 2022 that shows West seated beside the then-chair of the North Carolina Teenage Republicans.

West’s positions allowed him to attend other events with young people. In September 2020, he was photographed embracing the chairwoman of the North Carolina Young Republicans at a get-out-the-vote event in Plymouth, NC. A few months later, he posed for a photo at the state GOP convention that was uploaded to the Inner Banks Young Republicans’ Instagram account.

West also served as a delegate to the 2020 and 2024 Republican National Conventions, as did multiple high school students.

In September 2019, West and Whatley were both photographed at a recruitment dinner for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. Children and teenagers attended this event as well.

West has not been accused of any improprieties since finishing his prison sentence.

Whatley is now a candidate for the U.S. Senate facing former Gov. Roy Cooper. It is widely regarded as one of the most competitive Senate races of 2026.

Senate GOP Ads Broadcast Lies On Immigrants, Medicaid And Trump Budget

Senate GOP Ads Broadcast Lies On Immigrants, Medicaid And Trump Budget

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is running ads in multiple states that spread disinformation about Medicaid and undocumented immigrants.

The ads target Democratic Senate candidates in Ohio, Alaska, Iowa, Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Michigan for not supporting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), which the NRSC claims stopped undocumented immigrants from receiving Medicaid benefits.

This claim is false. Federal law already barred undocumented people from accessing Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) coverage. Instances of undocumented people being erroneously enrolled in these programs are extremely rare.

Republicans have made this claim about OBBB repeatedly since the legislation was introduced. Health policy experts, including the Kaiser Family Foundation and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, have repeatedly debunked it.

The law does, however, make profound changes to Medicaid. OBBB will cut about $1 trillion from the health insurance program over the next decade, resulting in up to 12 million Americans losing their coverage. The bulk of those cuts will fund tax breaks that disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

Sens. Jon Husted (OH) and Dan Sullivan (AK) both voted for OBBB, as did Reps. Ashley Hinson (IA) and Mike Collins (GA), who are both running for Senate this year. Former New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu and former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, who are also running for Senate, have both publicly praised the law.

Michael Whatley, the Republican Senate candidate in North Carolina, said he would have voted for OBBB “in a heartbeat.”

A tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that OBBB is deeply unpopular with voters. Sixty-four percent of respondents have an unfavorable view of the law. Among independents, 71 percent oppose it.

President Donald Trump has proposed additional tax cuts and further cuts to government programs if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate after the 2026 elections.

Reprinted with permission from American Journal News

North Carolina Senate Nominee Stands By January 6 Pardons Despite Sex Crimes

North Carolina Senate Nominee Stands By January 6 Pardons Despite Sex Crimes

Republican Michael Whatley continued to defend President Donald Trump’s pardons of January 6 insurrectionists, even after it was discovered that some of those individuals had been charged with sex crimes.

Trump issued a blanket pardon to everyone who participated in the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, despite initially promising to pardon only nonviolent offenders. NPR later reported that dozens of those rioters had prior convictions or pending charges, including for rape and the sexual abuse of minors.

Whatley, who is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, was asked during a February meet-and-greet whether he still supported Trump’s pardons. Whatley said, “Yeah,” and described the prosecutions as “malicious.”

NPR identified one of the pardoned rioters as David Daniel of Mint Hill, N.C., who was previously charged with producing sexually explicit material featuring a minor under the age of 12. Daniel argued that Trump’s pardon applied to this offense as well. A judge disagreed and he ultimately pleaded guilty to the offense.

Others were charged with sex crimes after the pardons were issued.

Andrew Paul Johnson of Florida received a life sentence in March for molesting a child under 12 and another under 16. He told one of his victims that he expected a settlement from the federal government related to the pardon and offered to share it with the victim if they stayed quiet.

Johnson may have gotten this idea from Trump himself, who tried to create a slush fund to pay victims of so-called “government weaponization,” which would presumably include the pardoned rioters.

Whatley said he supported the fund, which is currently being blocked by a federal judge.

Whatley’s tolerance of this behavior risks drawing attention to another scandal. From 2019 to 2024, he served as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. During that time, he appointed Harvey West to two party committees, according to a March report by the Asheville Watchdog, despite West having pleaded guilty in 2000 to taking indecent liberties with a minor.

Trump has endorsed Whatley’s campaign. Whatley will face former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in the general election.

Dan Sullivan

New Research Report Accuses GOP Senate Candidates Of Self-Enrichment

A new memo from End Citizens United flags ethics concerns about five Republicans competing in marquee Senate races.

Since 2015, End Citizens United has worked to eliminate dark money in U.S. politics by calling out corruption and elevating candidates who support commonsense campaign finance reforms.

The memo alleges that Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, former New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu, and North Carolina Republican Michael Whatley have all engaged in patterns of double-dealing and self-enrichment.

End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller says these Republicans “have spent their political careers leveraging their influence, cashing in on their connections, and abusing the public trust for personal gain instead of fighting for their constituents.”

The memo details, for example, how Sullivan has repeatedly voted to advance the interests of RPM International, a chemical manufacturing company run by his brother and in which he holds up to a $5 million stake. This includes blocking an amendment that would have allowed the EPA to crack down on cancer-causing pollutants and substances.

The memo also lays out Sullivan’s side hustle as a stock trader. He has made up to $2 million worth of trades while in office and has an estimated net worth of $8.29 million.

Collins is also a prolific stock trader, the memo says. Last year, she dodged questions from a reporter about her husband owning shares of Boeing, RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon), and other companies regulated by Congress.

Collins claimed to have no knowledge of her husband’s financial dealings despite reporting them in her own personal financial disclosures. Both Collins and Sullivan opposed a bipartisan effort to ban stock trading by members of Congress and their spouses.

Rogers, meanwhile, left Congress a decade ago, reportedly to pursue money-making ventures. According to the memo, he leveraged his national security expertise into lucrative consulting gigs with multinational corporations, including a cell phone company that helped Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro spy on civilians.

Rogers is now running for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat with the backing of President Donald Trump.

Sununu, another Trump-backed candidate, followed a similar trajectory. After leaving the Senate in 2009, he went to work for a lobbying firm whose clients included Pfizer, Gilead, Merck, Bayer, and Johnson & Johnson. He is now trying to return to the Senate on a platform of lowering health care costs.

Whatley also had an extensive lobbying career. He spent more than a decade advancing the interests of oil and natural gas companies. His current oil and gas investments are worth up to $1.39 million and have grown substantially as a result of the war in Iran.

“Voters expect elected officials to fight for hardworking families, not to cozy up to special interests and then walk through the revolving door to cash in,” Muller said. “We’re committed to holding these Revolving Door Republicans accountable for putting themselves and their donors ahead of the people they’re supposed to serve.”

End Citizens United has endorsed the likely Democratic candidates in these races: former Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska, oysterman Graham Platner in Maine, Rep. Chris Papas in New Hampshire, and former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina.

Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate will be chosen in an August 4 primary.

Reprinted with permission from American Journal News

Shop our Store

Headlines

Editor's Blog

Trending

World