Michael Whatley’s ‘Party of Faith’ Has Problems At The Top

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Michael Whatley’s face didn’t make it onto the poster promoting 2022’s “Salt & Light” conference at a megachurch in Charlotte. That space was reserved for the smiling likenesses of such conservative Christian superstars as U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, Fox News host Trey Gowdy, and North Carolina’s own Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.

But Whatley, then chairman of the state Republican Party, had already caught the eye of an even bigger name. And it wouldn’t be long before Donald Trump would promote Whatley to national GOP chairman.

On this September day in 2022, though, the mostly white evangelical crowd at Freedom House Church was about to hear Whatley lay out his vision for leading the GOP by marrying politics and religion. 

“I work hard every single day to make sure the North Carolina Republican Party is going to be the party of faith,” said Whatley, wearing a buttoned blue blazer over his open-collar white dress shirt. “I pray that I can use this platform that I’ve been given … to be an instrument of God. I don’t believe the Republican Party should hide from faith.”

Last month, he was back at Freedom House Church, joining GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance at a faith-based campaign event dubbed “Believers and Ballots.”

Whatley resurrected his call to make the Republican Party a beacon for the faithful. “We need more men and women of faith in public office, in North Carolina and across this country,” he said to cheers and applause.

But with just weeks before Election Day, Whatley’s lofty rhetoric has clashed with explosive headlines about the sins of some of the GOP’s top candidates.

The Assembly reported that six men said Robinson, now the Republican candidate for governor, was a regular customer at Greensboro video porn shops in the 1990s and early 2000s. Then CNN published an article saying Robinson frequented a porn site more than a decade ago, allegedly referring to himself as a “black NAZI” and saying he enjoyed watching transgender pornography. (Robinson denied the allegations in both articles and has sued CNN.) 

The North Carolina GOP’s nominee for superintendent of public instruction, Michele Morrow, called in the past for the execution of leaders like former President Barack Obama, whose death by firing squad, she said, could be shown on pay-per-view.

And Whatley’s new boss, former President Trump, who has been dogged by character issues for decades, is now increasingly being criticized, even ridiculed, by some evangelical Christians for not practicing what’s preached in the Bible—including the “God Bless the USA” edition that Trump is now hawking for $59.99 each.

Trump spoke Saturday in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the hometown of the late golfing great Arnold Palmer, and referred to the size of Palmer’s genitalia. He also called Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris “a shit vice president.”

In assessing that lineup of Republican candidates, Randall Balmer, a professor of religion at Dartmouth College who has written books on evangelicalism, turned to Scripture: “Jesus said, ‘By their fruits, you will know them.’” Then he added, “To pretend that this is the party of faith—there are just no words for that level of delusion.”

New York Times columnist David French, a conservative Christian who has worked as a pro-life lawyer, recently wrote that he is voting for a Democratic presidential candidate—Harris—for the first time in his life. “I have never seen a human being lie with the intensity and sheer volume of Donald Trump,” he wrote.

Whatley’s answer is that “faith is under assault,” citing, for example, Democrats working with teachers’ unions to “push transgenderism, to push woke-ism.” And Trump’s four years in the White House proved, Whatley added, that he is ready to lead the battle on those and other concerns of conservative church-goers.

Growing Up in the Church 

Whatley, 56, got his first taste of politics in 1984. Then a student at Watauga High School, he volunteered to help Republican Sen. Jesse Helms in his titanic re-election battle against then-Gov. Jim Hunt.

He studied history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, then went on to Wake Forest University, a school with Baptist roots, to get a master’s degree in religion in 1993. 

Even as a graduate student, Whatley seemed interested in the interplay of politics and religion. In his 90-page dissertation, which centered on the Roman Empire’s occupation of Palestine just before and after the time of Christ, he writes about how “religious and political power were intertwined and inseparable.”

Whatley continued his education at Notre Dame, a Roman Catholic school, where he got a joint degree in law and theology in 1998. Why so much religion?

“It has always been very important to me,” said Whatley, who now lives in Gastonia, where he and his family attend St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. “I grew up in the church. … And I think [religion] is always about understanding how to help your community and how to help people. And that’s how I’ve always approached politics.”

He was a clerk for U.S. District Judge Robert Potter in Charlotte. Then, in 2000, Whatley joined the corps of GOP lawyers trying to help George W. Bush emerge victorious out of that tangled Florida vote recount.

His resumé in the following years branded him a member of the Washington establishment: deputy assistant secretary in Bush’s Department of Energy; chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.); and partner at HBW Resources, a lobbying firm for oil and gas companies.

Then, in 2019, Whatley won a three-man race to become chairman of the North Carolina GOP. The party was just emerging from a rocky few years. Gov. Pat McCrory had lost his 2016 re-election bid and, in 2019, then-N.C. Republican Party chairman Robin Hayes pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about a bribery scheme. (He was pardoned by then-President Trump in 2021.)

Whatley prevailed by calling for a “reset.” 

Fortunes for the state party brightened some during his tenure: Republicans won two U.S. Senate elections and flipped the state Supreme Court from Democratic to GOP control.

And, though Trump lost the White House in 2020 after falling short in several battleground states, he won North Carolina for the second time.

“He was an exceptionally good [state] party chairman,” said veteran Republican operative Paul Shumaker, who credits Whatley with building a strong turn-out-the-vote effort and spending more money on judicial races, where Republicans also landed key wins. “His attitude was always: ‘What do you need for the party to help make things better overall?’”

Whatley also kept a high profile with politically conservative evangelical groups, speaking at churches and at events sponsored by the American Renewal Project and the N.C. Faith & Freedom Coalition, the state chapter of a national organization founded by Ralph Reed, who helped forge the GOP-evangelical alliance in the 1990s as head of the Christian Coalition.

“Chairman Whatley has been very engaged with people of faith,” said Jason Williams, executive director of the N.C. coalition.

But the growing dominance of Trump and his MAGA wing also brought greater division to North Carolina’s Republican ranks. Increasingly, the GOP base in the state, partly powered by a network of white evangelical churches, scorned more moderate establishment Republicans.

A prime example: The state party leadership censured Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr for voting to convict Trump during a Senate impeachment trial that focused on the former president’s role in the January 6 insurrection.

Whatley tried to downplay this slap at the state’s senior senator. “It’s important for the party to go ahead and put out a vote and a statement that it disagrees with Senator Burr’s vote, but in practical terms, it’s just that: It’s a resolution.”

But Burr called it “a truly sad day for North Carolina Republicans. My party’s leadership has chosen loyalty to one man over the core principles of the Republican Party and the foundations of our great nation.”

The state GOP also censured Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina last year for working with Democrats on gay rights, immigration, and gun violence policies. Trump chose Whatley to be national GOP chairman in February 2024 and he was elected in March. 

The Robinson Problem

This MAGA vs. establishment split reared its head again this year, when two more-traditional Republicans tried to keep Robinson from cake-walking his way to the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

One of them, businessman-lawyer Bill Graham, ran ads reminding primary voters of antisemitic, Holocaust-denying comments Robinson had posted on social media in the years before he entered politics.

One ad quoted Robinson writing, in 2018, that “This foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash.” Robinson would only admit to poor wording. 

A brash, ultraconservative populist, Robinson began every speech by thanking Jesus Christ, then thundered onward against everything from abortion to people who identify as transgender. His speeches on the stump and his sermons in right-wing churches delighted MAGA voters. Trump, too, embraced Robinson, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids,” even though the lieutenant governor himself had dismissed King as a Communist.

Apparently giving little thought to how Robinson would fare in a general election, GOP voters nominated him with 65 percent of the vote.

“His attitude was always: ‘What do you need for the party to help make things better overall?’”

Paul Shumaker, Republican operative

Ads run by his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein, have done major damage. One has Robinson on video saying women seeking abortions were “not responsible enough to keep [their] skirt down.” Another highlights state regulators’ concerns about the safety of a daycare run by Robinson and his wife from 2000 to 2007.

The news media both in North Carolina and nationally came up with other scoops. In the aftermath, McCrory, one of only three Republican governors in modern North Carolina history, blamed Whatley for not vetting Robinson.

“Robinson should have never been the nominee,” McCrory told The Assembly. “And, frankly, Whatley and anyone with reason knew this guy was a ticking time bomb while he was lieutenant governor. And they hadn’t done any vetting of this guy when he moved to another level.”

McCrory said, “Whatley failed the North Carolina Republican Party and the donors who have given to Robinson by not doing some basic background checks.”  

Whatley’s response? “That’s not the role of the Republican Party, to engage in a primary,” he said. “You had multiple other candidates who ran against him in the primary when he ran for lieutenant governor. You had multiple different candidates who ran against him in the primary for the governorship.”

He added that the Republican Party, in its bylaws, “is specifically prohibited from engaging in primary activity.”

Other state Republicans said they agree with Whatley that it’s ultimately the job of the voters to assess the candidates and decide who gets nominated.

“The party shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers,” said Shumaker, the strategist behind the ads Graham ran against Robinson. “The primary voting activists need to really take into account the quality of the candidate as it relates to electability. … Mark Robinson was clearly an unelectable candidate.”

In July 2023, long before Republicans picked Robinson as their nominee for the state’s top job, several Democratic members of Congress from North Carolina—including U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, a former board chair for the Jewish Federations of North America—wrote Whatley and GOP legislative leaders, urging them to condemn Robinson for his “antisemitic and hate-filled rhetoric.” 

Also signing the letter were two faith-based groups, the North Carolina Jewish Clergy Association and the Democratic Majority for Israel. At the time, Whatley’s office referred questions about the letter to Robinson’s campaign.

Asked by The Assembly if he was bothered by Robinson’s comments about Jews and the Holocaust, Whatley said: “Look, what I would just say is that I have been a strong supporter of Israel and the Jewish faith. I think that the Republican Party has held those [pro-Israel, pro-Jewish faith] positions and that they’re very important to the Republican Party.”

The Rise of ‘Nones’

According to a poll released last month by the Pew Research Center, neither political party can claim to be the exclusive party of faith.

Republicans have the support of most white evangelicals–82 percent of them back Trump this year, the poll found.

But among African-American Protestants, 86 percent support Harris, who spent part of a recent Sunday greeting congregants at a Black church in Greenville, North Carolina, as part of the “Souls to the Polls” early-voting campaign.

Catholics? Trump is favored by white Catholics, 61 percent to 38 percent. But Hispanic Catholics are mostly Harris voters, 65 percent to 34 percent.

“Robinson should have never been the nominee. And, frankly, Whatley and anyone with reason knew this guy was a ticking time bomb while he was lieutenant governor.”

Pat McCrory, former N.C. governor

Pope Francis doesn’t appear to like either U.S. presidential candidate, saying recently that American voters will have to decide for themselves which is “the lesser of two evils.” He said Harris’ pro-choice stand on abortion and Trump’s demonization of immigrants are both “against life.”

And though Whatley may be right that the Republican Party supports Israel and the Jewish faith, Jewish voters in the United States are going mostly Democratic in this presidential race, 65 percent to 34 percent, according to the poll.

Meanwhile, the findings of another Pew poll from earlier this year would seem to question the long-term wisdom of identifying as “the party of faith.”

The religious category that has grown the most in recent years: those with no religious affiliation at all. Namely, atheists, agnostics, and those who described their religion as “nothing in particular.”

Once called “Nones,” they are now 28 percent of U.S. adults. That’s up from 16 percent in 2007. They now outnumber those who identify as “born-again” or evangelical Protestants (24 percent) as well as Catholics (21 percent).

And Alan Cooperman, director of religion research at Pew, told The Assembly that a leading theory among sociologists for why there’s been such an increase in their numbers is that many of those in this mostly younger, liberal-leaning group are turned off by how political many churches have become.

Even among conservative Christians, the pool may be shrinking: Bill Leonard, the former dean of divinity at Wake Forest, one of Whatley’s alma maters, said a survey by the Southern Baptist Convention, a Republican-friendly denomination, found that only 20 percent of its churches are growing.

So, said Leonard, when Whatley is talking about Christian voters, “he’s not talking about Christianity in general, he’s speaking about one kind of Christianity.”

Namely, evangelicals. Trump again will win big among this group on Election Day. But should he? 

The answer is an emphatic no for a group calling itself “Evangelicals for Harris.” It is spending $1 million on ads that highlight Trump’s coarse behavior and lack of familiarity with the basics of the Christian faith.

In “Keep Clear,” a digital ad from the group, the late evangelical preacher Billy Graham of North Carolina is shown listing attributes—including greed, arrogance, and lust—that Christians should avoid. In each case, there’s also video of Trump, delighting in his wealth, praising himself and, in the infamous Access Hollywood tape, bragging about using his celebrity to impulsively kiss and grab any woman he’s attracted to.

In what may be the most stinging video clip in the ad: In October 2016, Trump is asked by pollster Frank Luntz if he’s ever asked God for forgiveness.

“That’s a tough question,” Trump responds. “I’m not sure I have. … I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.”

Bishop Claude Alexander of Charlotte is among the leaders of “Evangelicals for Harris.” Besides pastoring a Charlotte megachurch, he sits on the boards of Christianity Today and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, both co-founded by Billy Graham.

In remarks during a Zoom gathering of the faith-based Harris group, Alexander compared this election to the one in 1868, which he said was a referendum on the Civil War. “I believe that this election,” he said, “is a referendum on January 6, the insurrection and the [anti-democratic] forces underneath it.” 

The Assembly asked Whatley why Trump remains so popular with evangelicals, despite his character issues. Whatley said Trump consistently worked with the faith community and defended religious liberty.

“You can talk about the Supreme Court justices that he put in place [who helped overturn Roe v. Wade],” he said. “But you can also talk about the fact that he ended taxpayer funding for abortion, both in the U.S. and abroad. And he has touch points on a lot of different issues, including whether we’re going to have [those who identify as transgender in] boys’ and girls’ sports and men’s and women’s locker rooms.”

Williams, who leads the N.C. Faith & Freedom Coalition, said no candidate for president has been “a perfect example of Christianity.” But, with a “binary choice” between two candidates and their parties, he said it’s an easy pick for him and other evangelical Christians. They want more restrictions on abortion, he said, and blame Democrats for shutting down churches during COVID.

Yes, Williams acknowledged, he and others were not happy that, for the first time in decades, the Republican Party platform did not call for a federal abortion ban. Instead, it left the issue to the states, reflecting Trump’s evolving stance.

The GOP platform provision “doesn’t look like it would if me or Ralph Reed” had written it, Williams said, but it’s more pro-life than the Democrats’ position.

Some Christians who support Trump even saw God’s protective hand—and a heavenly endorsement—in the former president surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. For them, it was proof that God chose Trump, as imperfect a person as he is, to head the party of faith.

Or, as Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and Whatley’s national GOP co-chair, declared, at a follow-up rally in Butler: “This is no longer a fight between Republican vs. Democrat, left vs. right. It is good vs. evil. And good is going to win,” she told the crowd. “If you had any question whether God exists and he performs miracles, we got an answer right here on July 13.”

‘We Always Need Moral Leadership’

CNN has reported that Whatley echoed some of Trump’s false claims that Democratic-run cities in swing states engaged in “massive fraud” during the 2020 election, though he later acknowledged that Biden is the country’s legitimate president.

Judging by his recent posts on X, Whatley is spending much of his time in the runup to the election on Republican Party lawsuits: to force swing states to hire more GOP poll workers (Michigan), stop counting undated ballots (Pennsylvania), prevent non-citizens from voting (Nevada), and more.

Whatley celebrated an N.C. court victory that will stop the use of digital student IDs as voter IDs. But he also lauded the Republican-controlled legislature for relaxing rules “to make sure North Carolinians struggling from Hurricane Helene are not deprived of their right to vote.” Many of the hardest-hit counties in Western North Carolina are GOP strongholds.

“He’s not talking about Christianity in general, he’s speaking about one kind of Christianity.”

Bill Leonard, former dean of divinity at Wake Forest University

But, even as his court filings, campaign rallies and nonstop travel keep things hectic, the Republican chairman continues to make time for his efforts to align politics and religion.

He jumped on the RNC National Day of Prayer call with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, a North Carolina Republican. As October 7 approached, he asked his X followers to join him in praying for Israel.

And to help hurricane victims in his home state, he spent a day in Watauga and Ashe counties with volunteers from Samaritan’s Purse, the Christian relief agency headed by the Rev. Franklin Graham, who supports Trump and spoke at this year’s Republican National Convention. 

At the campaign event with Vance, Whatley listed some of the state and federal offices that candidates in attendance were running for, including attorney general, Congress, and school board.

He left out governor. And he didn’t mention Robinson, who has vanished from national GOP campaign events (including Trump rallies in North Carolina) after his highly publicized fall from grace.

Two years ago, Whatley traveled around North Carolina with Robinson—“a man of tremendous faith,” Whatley said at the time—for 15 lunches with a total of 3,000 pastors.

Their message to the church leaders: Run for office. “We always need moral leadership,” Whatley explained to The Assembly.

But in that same interview, Whatley rejected the idea that the controversy surrounding Robinson would make it harder for him to cast the Republican Party as the party of faith.

“The things that Mark has been alleged to be involved in are antithetical to Republican values,” Whatley said. “And it is incumbent on Mark as a candidate to talk to the voters and demonstrate that those are not his words and his actions or his values.”

But the Trump campaign isn’t holding its breath, stepping up visits to the state by Trump and Vance even as the Harris campaign has put up ads tying Trump to Robinson. Vance campaigned in Wilmington on October 16, and Trump is scheduled to visit Greenville on October 21. This must-win state has become a toss-up. 

The stakes? No Republican has won the White House without North Carolina since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.