Standing next to President Donald Trump after Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina in 2024, Michael Whatley wanted those watching the storm briefing to know how affected he was by the disaster, saying he had deep roots in the region.Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.“As a son of western North Carolina, I was in Watauga County with Samaritan’s Purse recently and got a chance to see the devastation that all of these communities have hit,” said Whatley, who was then chair of the Republican National Committee and the Trump administration’s “recovery czar.”Whatley is now running for Senate against Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s former Democratic governor.And on the campaign trail, his ties to the region are a central part of his political DNA.
He frequently talks about how he “grew up” in the tiny town of Blowing Rock in western North Carolina.An NBC News review found that Whatley has used some variation of that line at least 15 times since he announced his Senate run in July.“I grew up in a tiny, little town in North Carolina called Blowing Rock,” Whatley told conservative commentator Mark Levin in December.
“We have one stoplight and a Hardee’s.You know, I went to church and I played sports and I worked.”But records show that Whatley spent most of his childhood away from North Carolina.
He was born in Michigan and stayed there until his early high school years.He then lived in Blowing Rock for roughly three years before going elsewhere in the state for college.On Oct.
7, 1968, the Lansing State Journal ran a short announcement on the birth six days earlier of a baby, Michael David, to Mr.and Mrs.
Robert W.Whatley.
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 soph...