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,

The open North Carolina seat comes after Republican Sen. Thom Tillis announced last month that he would not seek re-election.

President Donald Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump on Thursday said she would not run for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina next year, setting the stage for an expected matchup of former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley.

Trump is among other prominent figures named in the previously unsealed documents. He was mentioned in a 2016 deposition from Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein’s victims, who said the disgraced financier’s plane made an impromptu stop in Atlantic City in the 2000s. Sjoberg said “no” when asked if she’d given Trump a massage.

A flurry of MAGA influencers have spoken out against President Donald Trump 's administration's handling of the Epstein files in recent days as he faces growing political backlash. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Newsweek that the Republican Party has achieved "unprecedented unity and strength" under Trump's leadership.