AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
In a 10-day span, U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley blocked at least three reporters from covering his campaign events, labeling their news outlets as “left-wing activists.”
Read more Taylor Frankie Paul Defends Being on Social Media As She Faces Legal Issues
Mike Tadych, an attorney for the N.C. Press Association who represents McClatchy, called Whatley’s decision “frustrating,” “cowardly” and “inconsistent with the marketplace of ideas,” but acknowledged it’s not illegal unless Whatley violated a “requirement of a venue that should be open to the public.”
“I would say that failing to allow reporters to report on what is said and done in a campaign’s events should promote skepticism of that candidate,” Tadych said Wednesday, “whether it’s a conservative, or liberal or an indifferent candidate.”
On Thursday, the campaign of Whatley’s opponent, former Gov. Roy Cooper, would follow suit and block a photographer from a fourth outlet from covering his event.
Whatley, 57, of Gastonia, is the former Republican National Committee chairman and is running against Cooper, 69, a Democrat from Raleigh, to succeed Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who chose not to seek reelection.
Cooper leads Whatley in every poll released since the two men entered the race, with many people saying they don’t know who Whatley is.
Despite Whatley rising to chairman of both the state and national parties, he’s never held public office or had a large presence in North Carolina. But he’s running against a two-term governor who has held an elected seat every year from 1987 until being term-limited at the end of 2024.
North Carolina’s Senate seat is key for Republicans to maintain control of the upper chamber where the party holds a narrow majority, but political observers believe that Cooper will flip the seat unless something drastic happens in the campaigns between now and November.
And Whatley has done little to bolster his profile across North Carolina, though he recently announced he finished traveling to all 100 counties. Whatley rarely noted those tour stops to news outlets prior to them occurring.
One event Whatley did notify news outlets about took place on June 3, when he gathered reporters at Smash Masters in Zebulon to talk about his support for President Donald Trump’s “No Tax on Tips,” a piece of legislation that passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, last summer.
At that event, a reporter for The Assembly asked Whatley about a post on his campaign social media account that used artificial intelligence to create images of fake players for the Carolina Hurricanes, and cheer the team on. The Assembly’s reporter then asked Whatley if he could name three players — he couldn’t.
A month later, at an event on July 10, his campaign kept The Assembly and NC Newsline from coming in, but allowed The News & Observer and ABC 11 to attend, along with conservative news outlets North State Journal and Blue Ridge Times, the latter an online website run by former NCGOP spokesman Tim Wigginton.
This time, The Assembly and NC Newsline were not notified by the campaign about the news conference ahead of time, but learned about it.
The campaign told NC Newsline they wouldn’t be allowed entry because they missed the campaign’s deadline to RSVP, the publication reported.
The Assembly’s reporter was turned away by building security, and after arguing, was told he would be trespassing if he stayed in the building and that police were being called.
Less than 10 days later, a reporter for the Asheville Citizen-Times found himself in a similar situation when he wasn’t allowed into a publicly advertised event in a public building. A Waynesville resident who told The Asheville Citizen Times he booked the building for the event told the reporter he called 911 after blocking entry to the reporter, the newspaper reported.
“We have tried to remain hopeful this was an oversight and not indicative of how the campaign plans to treat our reporters going forward, but are dismayed to hear it has happened to other news outlets,” said Kate Sheppard, editor of The Assembly, on Wednesday. “Our team will continue covering the Whatley-Cooper race regardless of roadblocks created by candidates or their campaigns.”
Despite Sheppard’s optimism, the Whatley campaign made clear this was no accident.
“These left-wing activists posing as ‘journalists’ already have their narrative written,” said DJ Griffin, Whatley’s campaign spokesman, when asked about NC Newsline and The Assembly. “Whether they’re inside the event or standing on the sidewalk makes no difference. They’ll publish the same garbage and lies either way.”
The Whatley campaign did not immediately reply to a request for comment Thursday about the event on July 18, involving the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Similarly, the Cooper campaign declined to comment late Thursday after it turned away Wigginton and a North State Journal photographer. The conservative North State Journal was created by former officials in Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration, including Neal Robbins, who went on to serve as senior adviser to the U.S. secretary of agriculture under Trump. Its former editor in chief is the North Carolina Republican Party’s spokesman, Matt Mercer.
Earlier this week, North State Journal reporter A.P. Dillon appeared on WBT Radio in Charlotte and commented on how she reports on Cooper from videos and speeches but didn’t believe she would be allowed into an event.
Read more Popular restaurant chain opens third Triangle location in Durham
“I would imagine if I showed up there and said, ‘You know, I’m a member of the press, let me in,’ they would probably look at me and tell me no, and that’s their right to do so as a campaign,” Dillon said on air.
Tadych, answering questions Wednesday about Whatley’s recent bans, said “the role of the press, whether you like it or not, is to be the eyes and ears of the people.”
“The public should be wary of folks who want to pick and choose who gets to deliver their message. I think it lays the groundwork for an avoidance of accountability if elected, which is an avoidance of transparency if elected.”
That’s a sentiment agreed upon by Israel Balderas, a First Amendment lawyer, former reporter and journalism professor at Elon University.
Balderas said a reporter’s job is to be the stand-in for the everyday American too busy working or taking care of their families to attend campaign events on a random afternoon.
He said they’re meant to be the eyes and ears of voters, explaining what a candidate said or didn’t say; did or didn’t do.
And, he added, just because a reporter is banned doesn’t stop them from covering the campaigns.
What it can do though, is force the reporter to use filtered information from the campaign. Or forces a voter to rely on information the campaign is choosing for them to see.
“If you take the reporter out, it’s not that you’re getting less information, it’s that you’re getting information nobody checked,” Balderas said. “And that’s the issue because in a free society, the idea is that voters want to be well-informed so they can make their own judgment come Election Day, but you take that out of the equation, and it’s the voter that loses.”
Whatley’s campaign hasn’t said publicly if any specific article led to these outlets’ bans.
The Asheville Citizen-Times, one of North Carolina’s larger newspapers, wrote dozens of articles about the Senate race, with a particular focus on Whatley as Trump’s “recovery czar.” The newspaper is located in the area of North Carolina ravaged by 2024’s Helene and still recovering from the widespread damage.
Several of the newspaper’s articles on the race were also pulled from N.C. Newsline, a nonprofit news outlet under States Newsroom. It was formerly NC Policy Watch, which then was under the N.C. Justice Center, a left-of-center advocacy group. Some of its coverage has included Whatley’s campaign events, his focus on violent crime, Helene relief, his support for Trump’s controversial “1776 fund” and a previous arrest order for skipping court.
The Assembly is a digital startup and partners with Washington-based NOTUS. It has covered news such as Whatley’s campaign launch, his role as Trump’s Helene “recovery czar,” his views on various bills and the Hurricanes dustup.
Balderas said it’s straight out of Trump’s playbook to ban the press from events, but he said that won’t play well in this particular election.
Balderas acknowledged accusations lobbed at Cooper for not allowing conservative media outlets to ask questions during COVID-19–focused news conferences when he was governor. And he said Democrats have blocked reporters from entering their events, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
But Balderas said, whether it’s positive or negative coverage, it’s important for people to know what’s going on.
He also pointed to CNN and The New York Times, two outlets that Republicans often accuse of being left-of-center, being the outlets who reported on Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s alleged rape, an accusation that ultimately ended his campaign.
“I think what I would argue to Michael Whatley is the strategy that I call the ‘Trump strategy,’ and that is going after the press — this is not the election to do this,” Balderas said.
He added that what’s driving the electorate now on both sides of the aisle and for independents is that people are tired of a system that is rigged.
“I think … authenticity is what voters are craving and maybe in the past, this would have been red meat for the people on the right, but this is a general election in a purple state where 2-3% of the electorate are going to decide this election,” Balderas said. “Maybe him saying no to … The Assembly, that’s going to stir up his base, but the fact that you are excluding the press is going to send a signal, that well, is Michael hiding something?”
Read more Boxer Adrien Broner Accused of ‘Outrageous’ Behavior in Sexual Assault Case
This story was originally published July 24, 2026 at 10:55 AM.