By JILL COLVIN Associated Press

Michael Whatley, chairman of the national Republican Party, plans to run for an open Senate seat in North Carolina in 2026 with the blessing of President Donald Trump after Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, passed on the seat.

Democrats see the race as their top chance to flip a seat in the midterm elections as they try to regain control of the Senate. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis recently made a surprise announcement that he would not run for a third term after clashing with Trump.

Whatley’s decision was confirmed by two people familiar with his thinking. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly before an official announcement and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Trump asked Whatley, who leads the Republican National Committee, to run, according to one of the people. Politico first reported news of Whatley’s plans.

Whatley is considered by national Republicans to be a strong contender in the closely watched race, thanks partly to the large fundraising network he has cultivated as chair of the Republican National Committee and his perceived loyalty to the president. Whatley is a well-known name in the state, having previously served as chairman of the state GOP, and he has no voting record that could be used against him by Democrats.

It was not immediately clear when Trump might weigh in publicly for his preferred candidate or when Whatley would formally launch his campaign.

Lara Trump, who grew up in North Carolina and now hosts a Fox News Channel show, likely would have been the immediate front-runner for the nomination, and the president said she was his top choice. She had long stressed her ties to the critical swing state and had served as co-chair of the RNC during last year’s presidential election. Having a Trump on the ballot would have been a boon for the party, which has struggled to turn out voters in off-year elections.

But Lara Trump, who now lives in Florida with her young family, would have had to establish residency and register to vote in North Carolina by mid-September to qualify for the March primary, according to state law.

She announced in a social media post Thursday that she had decided against it.

“After much consideration and heartfelt discussions with my family, friends, and supporters, I have decided not to pursue the United States Senate seat in North Carolina at this time,” she wrote. “While I am not running in this election, my passion for Making America Great Again burns brightly, and I look forward to the future, wherever that leads.”

She had previously declined to run for Senate in North Carolina in 2022 and in 2024 took herself out of the running to fill the term of former Florida Sen. Marco Rubio after he became secretary of state.

The race is expected to be contentious in a state Donald Trump carried by 3.2 percentage points in 2024.

Democrats have been encouraging former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper, who is seen as a formidable candidate by both parties, to run. A Cooper adviser, Morgan Jackson, would not confirm on Wednesday that Cooper had made a decision to run, but said the Democrat “would be making his intentions known in the coming days.”

First-term Rep. Pat Harrigan, a West Point graduate and former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan and later became a defense-products manufacturer, was also seen as a potential Republican candidate.

Harrigan had previously said he would immediately back Lara Trump if she ran.

Tillis, who had opposed the Medicaid reductions in the president’s tax break and spending cut package, announced in late June that he would not run for reelection in after the president threatened to back a primary challenge against him.

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Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.