“Republicans pull funding of Trump-backed Senate candidate in critical North Carolina race”, 2 October 2026 (Photo via The Guardian — the original report)
As it ran on the front
The Senate Leadership Fund set aside $71 million to elevate Michael Whatley in North Carolina, the kind of reservation a party books when it expects to win the seat. It spent $30 million of that before Friday, when it began — trimming is the word the committee would prefer, but the number is zero, so call it what it is: canceling.
On September 16th, former Kansas Governor Bill Graves, a Republican, endorsed Hamilton, the Democrat challenging Senator Roger Marshall, saying six years of Marshall's record amounted to turning his back on the state. The next day, Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball moved three Senate races toward Democrats, Kansas and Iowa among them, citing a persistently poor national environment for the GOP; Iowa slid from Leans Republican to Toss-up. Cook Political Report moved Kansas the same direction a day after that.…
…(cont) Friday answered the question those four days had been asking. The New York Times, the Guardian and the Daily Caller each confirmed the same reporting: the Senate Leadership Fund is out of North Carolina and into Kansas, up to $10 million of it. Politico called Kansas a state where "the deep-red state is in play." A second former Republican governor, Hayden, endorsed Hamilton the same week Graves did — two Republican governors now on record for the Democrat in a state Republicans built their whole plan around not needing to defend.
And then the president, on the South Lawn, on his way to a rally: "I think he's a great man, and I am worried about him." Call that candor, if you like — a man leveling with reporters on his way out the door. Except the Senate Leadership Fund made the same point first, the same day, with ten million dollars it moved to Kansas instead of spending on him. He said all of it on his way to Alabama, a state his own party already has locked up, to rally a candidate running for governor. Which leaves exactly one place the president's closing week was not going: North Carolina.
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“They sat on North Carolina money for three weeks while two Republican governors walked out the front door, and the fix was a rally in Alabama, a state nobody's fighting over. That's not strategy, that's a party admitting the race is gone and hoping nobody counts the zeros. Whatley's still the nominee — he's just not getting paid for anymore.”
“Redirecting resources to Kansas shows the Fund playing offense, expanding the map, not retreating from North Carolina. Thirty million is still real investment in Whatley, that's not nothing — okay, it's thirty million less than we promised, but the math still works if you don't look too close at the math. And the president saying he's worried, that's just honesty with voters, it's not like the money already left the state before he opened his mouth — did I say that part out loud?”
Senate Leadership Fund is redirecting ad spending from Michael Whatley’s campaign to support other candidates A major Republican political action committee pulled the plug on financial support for its Senate candidate in North Carolina , Michael Whatley, according to multiple reports, as the party begins to triage resources amid…
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Kansas Democratic Senate nominee Adam Hamilton said “please, no” on Thursday to the possibility of former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigning with him ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Appearing on Politico’s “The Conversation,”
Trump will rally in Mobile, Alabama. It's the latest stop on a swing through red states to boost election turnout among Republican voters, amid low approval ratings.
President Donald Trump will speak at a rally in Alabama on Friday at 7 p.m. as part of his tour boosting Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections. Alongside the president will be Sen.
As the Republicans try to hold their majority, the Senate Leadership Fund is diverting resources to Kansas, which has become a growing concern for the party.
President Trump said he was worried about North Carolina GOP Senate nominee Michael Whatley’s election chances as the Senate Republican super PAC began canceling reservations in the state Friday. “I think he’s a great man, and I am worried about him,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn en route to a campaign rally in...
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