RALEIGH — NCGOP Chairman Michael Whatley announced in a letter to the party late Monday that he would be stepping down.
“After prayerful consideration and conversations with my family, President Trump and his campaign and many of our Republican candidates and leaders, I have decided to step down as the NCGOP Chairman,” Whatley wrote in a letter to party members. “I feel that it is important for us to have a Chair who can focus solely on winning the critical races up and down the ballot in North Carolina, work closely with President Trump and his campaign and continue to work daily with all of our county and district parties, auxiliary groups and Republican Candidates.”
Whatley went on to write he had “issued a call for an Executive Committee Meeting to be held on March 26 where I will resign and allow the Committee to elect a replacement who can continue all of our great work and help deliver a significant victory this Fall.”
NCGOP Executive Director Jason Simmons has already dropped his name on the list to succeed Whatley.
The resignation as NCGOP chair follows Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel stepping aside and Whatley being installed as the RNC co-chair alongside Lara Trump over the past weekend.
Some 60 staffers were reportedly fired in wake of the leadership change.
Former President Donald Trump gave his endorsement to Whatley for the RNC co-chair spot. Last February, Whatley had been named general counsel to the RNC.
Read Whaley’s full letter to the NC Republican Party:
To the North Carolina Republican Party –It has been an incredible honor to serve as the Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with all of you to help our Republican Candidates win up and down the ballot.Over the past five years we have built a state party that has become the envy of the nation – from creating our first statewide election integrity and early vote programs to building an incredibly successful digital fundraising and communications platform and recruiting & training tens of thousands of volunteers to get out the vote and protect the ballot.The results speak for themselves: in a true battleground state, we have flipped the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, won Republican supermajorities in both the House and the Senate, elected 64 Republican Sheriffs and are ready to send four additional Republican members to Congress to help protect our fragile majority in the House of Representatives. None of this would have been possible without the dedication and hard work of all of you who make up our Republican Party.I am proud to announce that I have been unanimously elected as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee and will be stepping into that role this week. As all of you know, this is one of the most critical elections our country has ever seen and this incredible opportunity will allow me to work daily with President Trump and his campaign, as well as great Republicans from all across the Country, to elect him as our 47th President, expand our majority in the House of Representatives and flip the Senate.After prayerful consideration and conversations with my family, President Trump and his campaign and many of our Republican candidates and leaders, I have decided to step down as the NCGOP Chairman. I feel that it is important for us to have a Chair who can focus solely on winning the critical races up and down the ballot in North Carolina, work closely with President Trump and his campaign and continue to work daily with all of our county and district parties, auxiliary groups and Republican Candidates.Accordingly, I have issued a call for an Executive Committee Meeting to be held on March 26 where I will resign and allow the Committee to elect a replacement who can continue all of our great work and help deliver a significant victory this Fall.I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to serve as the Chairman of your North Carolina Republican Party. As I have travelled across the Old North State and had an opportunity to meet and work with our great Republican Activists, Leaders and Candidates in all 100 counties, I have been blown away by your leadership, service and friendship.I look forward to seeing you on March 26 and working with all of you to win big on November 5th.
