By: Hunter Klosty
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley visited the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on February 17 to meet with members of the College Republicans. Whatley has served as chairman of the RNC since March of last year and thus oversaw the GOP’s victories during the 2024 election cycle that captured a government trifecta. Before the meeting, the Carolina Review was able to sit down for a short interview regarding Republican politics in the age of President Donald Trump.
[Following is the Carolina Review interview:]
Carolina Review. Mr. Whatley, President Trump had huge inroads with the youth vote. In the precincts surrounding UNC-Chapel Hill there was anywhere from a 5 to 11 point swing towards President Trump. Still, young conservatives feel nervous to talk about their political beliefs in public and in the classroom. What is the RNC doing to change that?
Chairman Whatley. Well I think a lot of what we’re trying to do came to fruition in the campaign. The whole point is to talk to youth voters about the issues that they care about so that they can talk about it amongst themselves. When you think about that the way that we went and every part of the campaign whether we were talking to traditional Republican voters or we were going into Black communities, Hispanic communities, Asian-American communities, women voters, youth voters, it really truly was talk to them about the issues that they care about. Obviously, a lot of different outreach mechanisms, including X, all of the different podcasts that the President went on, which were terribly important, but when you talk about the fundamentals of this campaign, it really came down to the same set of policy issues. It came down to the economy, what kind of job are you going to be able to get when you get out of school. What about illegal immigration issues, is your community going to be safe? Things along those lines, so it is really going to be more conversations targeting those groups in terms of the delivery vehicle, y’know, get them to talk to each other. I mean that’s why I’m here tonight, to talk to College Republicans.
Q. You told NewsNation recently that you think members of Congress who oppose the Trump agenda can face “ramifications.” Just within the last month we saw Susan Collins vote against Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, Bill Cassidy has raised concerns with the HHS agenda, though he did ultimately vote for RFK Jr., Thom Tillis was censured in 2023 by the North Carolina Republican party. We’re just a month into the new administration. How is having ramifications against incumbent members of Congress who are up for re-election beneficial to the Republican party?
Chairman Whatley. Well, what we’re seeing right now is an absolutely unified Republican party. I mean what we’re going to have is every single one of President Trump’s nominees going through. So, we have seen Susan Collins supporting these candidates. We saw Thom Tillis supporting these candidates. We’ve seen Lisa Murkowski supporting these candidates, so all of them are going to get through, which is very important for us. And then when we go into talking about the rest of the agenda where we need legislation, we fully expect at this point in time that we’re going to have the House pass bills, we’re going to have the Senate bills, they’re going to work out the differences between the two of them and they’re going to move forward with the President’s agenda.
Q. So you think with divisions already with the TikTok ban, SALT deductions, the war in Ukraine, you can have a unified Republican caucus?
Chairman Whatley. I think we will. The hallmark of the Republican party is we’re going to air this out. We’re going to have disagreements. We’re going to sit down and we’re going to knock out those disagreements and figure out what we need to do to move forward. But at the end of the day, this is President Trump’s agenda. This is what he was elected on. This is what the Republican House majority was elected on, and what the Senate majority was elected on. So, I fully expect that on all of the critical issues, we’ll find the unanimity that we need to move forward.
Q. President Trump also made great inroads in liberal states. New Jersey saw the second highest swing towards President Trump of any state. They have a Gubernatorial election this year. You’re going to Morris County, New Jersey in eight days. The RNC did not invest heavily in the 2021 Gubernatorial race. That was a really close election, only three points. You didn’t invest heavily in the 2024 Senate race. Are you going to have a different strategy going into 2025 with the open Governor’s Mansion?
Chairman Whatley. We will see financially what those numbers are going to look like, but the key is that as you said, the President has made significant inroads in these states. We won the Virginia governor’s race in 2021, for example. The way we won that race is we had a candidate who went out and talked about the issues that people cared about and addressed them. Republicans will win when we understand what motivates the voters. When we put solutions on the table and we talk about it. So, as we go into New Jersey, I think we learned a lot of lessons in the last cycle. We’re going to be there. We are going to support the candidate. Obviously, they’re going to have a contested primary. The Republican party does not engage in the primaries whatsoever. But once that candidate comes out of it, we’ll be in a position to support them.
Q. So you talked about candidate strength and the primaries a little bit. Has the Republican party learned its lesson about fielding weak candidates? Kari Lake in Arizona and Mark Robinson in North Carolina, for instance, many say lost very winnable races.
Chairman Whatley. The party itself is not able to engage in the primary process. But the Republican ecosystem understands that you’re going to have to field very strong candidates. When you think about the three components that we need to see for winning any close election in a battleground state, you’ve got to have number 1, a great candidate running a great campaign. Number 2, get out the vote. Number 3, you’ve got to protect the ballot. So, I can take care of the get out the vote operation and protecting the ballot, but it is up to those candidates to be able to come through that primary and put themselves in a position to win.
Q. And do you think you will remain RNC Chairman through the ‘28 cycle?
Chairman Whatley. We will see. I have agreed with the President to serve through this cycle, and it’s a great honor and a lot of fun.
Q. Thank you, Chairman Whatley.
Chairman Whatley. Thank you. I appreciate it very much.