MAGA candidate downplaying big part of his history in make-or-break Senate race

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Donald Trump and then-Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley in Phoenix, Arizona on December 22, 2024 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

On Election Night 2026, Democratic and GOP strategists will be paying very close attention to the outcome of a U.S. Senate race in North Carolina — where former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley is up against centrist Democrat and former Gov. Roy Cooper. Whatley is making his connection to North Carolina a prominent theme of his campaign, but according to NBC News' Matt Dixon, he is downplaying the major role that Michigan plays in his history.

Whatley, a Generation Xer, was born in Michigan on October 7, 1968 but moved to Watauga County, North Carolina with his parents as a teenager and attended high school there. However, he started high school in East Lansing, Michigan.

During an interview with far-right media figure Mark Levin, Whatley said, "I grew up in a tiny little town in North Carolina called Blowing Rock. We have one stoplight and a Hardee's. You know, I went to church, and I played sports — and I worked."

Dixon, however, reports that according to records, Whatley "spent most of his childhood away from North Carolina."

"He was born in Michigan and stayed there until his early high school years," Dixon explains. "He then lived in Blowing Rock for roughly three years before going elsewhere in the state for college…. Whatley's picture appears in the 1983 East Lansing High School yearbook, when he was a freshman. The first time his picture appears in the Watauga High School yearbook, the school he attended while living in Blowing Rock, was as a member of the sophomore class in 1984."

Dixon notes that Whatley's campaign website, as of June 25, "says he was 'raised in Blowing Rock' and makes no mention of his Michigan roots."

"In September, he told The Talk Station, 'I am a kid who grew up in Blowing Rock,'" Dixon observes. "And in January, he told the 'Agriculture in North Carolina' podcast that he 'grew up in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, obviously a very small town.' Whatley has been careful not to say that he was born there, according to interviews reviewed by NBC News. He has, however, not always corrected others when they say so."

North Carolina, a swing state, presently has a Democratic governor, Josh Stein, and two Republican U.S. senators: Ted Budd and Thom Tillis, who isn't seeking election in the 2026 midterms and will be exciting Congress in early January 2027.

Jason Husser, who teaches political science professor at North Carolina Elon University in North Carolina, doesn't expect Whatley's connection to Michigan to be a major factor in the Senate race but says it could be a minor one.

Husser told NBC News, "I see two dimensions here: whether it contributes to a perception of inauthenticity for Whatley, and whether depth of childhood ties matters to voters. On the former, it likely doesn't help Whatley persuade or 'win back' those who already were leaning for Cooper, but I doubt it moves the needle much on the latter."

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