Can Michele Morrow repeat her 2024 upset in this year’s Republican Senate primary?
Michele Morrow has already won a Republican primary in North Carolina when few expected it — and she’s betting she can do it again.
Morrow, the 2024 GOP nominee for North Carolina superintendent of public instruction, jumped into the 2026 Republican primary for U.S. Senate as the underdog. The crowded race already included Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chair backed by President Donald Trump, and businessman Don Brown.
But even among Republicans who like Morrow personally or who see her as an authentic grassroots figure, there’s uncertainty about how viable she is in a statewide Senate contest, particularly when Trump has already endorsed her biggest rival.
Morrow is a controversial name in North Carolina politics. She has faced intense backlash for past remarks, including comments calling for the public execution of former President Barack Obama, saying public schools are “indoctrination centers,” and other inflammatory social media posts. Still, she surprised many Republicans by winning the primary for superintendent in an upset powered by grassroots conservatives, even though she lost the general election.
Now, Morrow argues she’s uniquely positioned to defeat likely Democratic nominee, former Gov. Roy Cooper.
At a full Cabarrus County GOP meeting Jan. 8 in Concord, Morrow framed her Senate bid as a strategic fight to stop Cooper from heading to Washington. Morrow told the crowd she believes none of her Republican opponents can do it.
A GOP operative supporting Whatley said Morrow is not a viable nominee, and his campaign did not comment further on the record.
What do NC Republicans think?
Mecklenburg County Republican Party chair Kyle Kirby, who said he was sharing his personal view rather than the party’s position, told the Observer that Morrow’s late entry could reshape the race — but not necessarily in her favor. He said Morrow’s support, like her support in 2024, is rooted at the grassroots level. But he predicted most Republicans will still end up behind Whatley.
“I think she’s someone that cannot be ignored, However I still believe that in all likelihood, the vast majority of Republicans are going to go with Whatley,” Kirby said. “I think that her entry into the race is more likely going to wound Don Brown’s chances of getting the nomination than they would be to overtake Michael Whatley.”
Kirby said Trump’s endorsement carries significant weight.
“Absolutely no question in my mind that Donald Trump’s endorsement of Whatley is going to be a crucial consideration for all Republicans,” Kirby said.
Kirby said Morrow is “a wild card” who has already “pulled elections out of her hat.” But he described the Senate contest as fundamentally different from her education campaign. With Whatley already organizing and raising money, Kirby said he expects most Republicans to rally behind the Trump-endorsed candidate. Morrow’s entry, Kirby said, could even boost Whatley’s chances by pulling away votes from Brown. Whatley raised over $5 million for his campaign in the final quarter of 2025, his campaign said.
Kirby said his comments reflect his personal opinion, not the county party’s position, noting the party does not make endorsements in primary contests.
Morrow’s controversial public image may also complicate her path.
When she ran for superintendent in 2024, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis did not support her bid. In a statement at the time provided through his spokesperson, Tillis, who holds the Senate seat Morrow seeks, was described as “highly unlikely” to support her, and the statement criticized what it called “terrorist rhetoric,” by Morrow, including statements calling for public executions of elected officials.
Tillis is not seeking reelection.
Jake Riggs, a 31-year-old Cabarrus County Republican who attended the meeting last week, said he was surprised Morrow entered the race at all. Riggs said he will probably vote for Whatley, who he described as less controversial.
“She already had a controversial failure at the state level,” Riggs said. “He’s got a little bit more establishment support and less controversies in his past.”
But Riggs said he doesn’t put much stock in Trump’s endorsement because, in his view, every candidate is already courting the same base.
“To me personally, Donald Trump’s endorsement is kind of white noise,” he said. “They’re all already MAGA. They’re all already aligned with Trump. And this endorsement is just Trump saying who he thinks is going to do best against Roy Cooper, which we all kind of already know anyway.”
North Carolina Rep. Jonathan Almond, a Republican lawmaker who met Morrow during the 2024 campaign, said he respects her work ethic and thinks her primary victory showed her ability to lead a campaign.
“She got a victory in the primary, which was, you know, seemingly a huge grassroots win,” Almond said.
He said Trump’s endorsement of Whatley could carry significant weight with less-engaged voters, but that he wouldn’t count Morrow out entirely.
“Timing is very important in politics, I know it’s definitely going to be an uphill battle,” Almond said. “But really, Michele’s got a great ground game and it’s really about turnout, right? So I think that anything is possible.”
Brown told WRAL News in December that he doesn’t believe Morrow can defeat Cooper in a general election.
“How are you going to get by Roy Cooper if you can’t get by Mo Green?” Brown told the outlet.
Morrow says she’s the one who can beat Cooper
In an interview with the Observer, Morrow said she’s already battle tested in the kind of competitive general election environment Republicans expect to face against Cooper. Morrow pointed to her 2024 run for state superintendent when she said she was outspent but still drew millions of votes statewide.
“And I’ll tell you, Cooper went after me harder than anyone else in that race, and so he is scared, and that’s what we need,” Morrow said. “We need to pull out who he truly is, so that he can’t pull the wool over people’s eyes,” she said.
Morrow knows she might be a wild card, but said she believes her name recognition is an advantage over Whatley, who she described as less known outside traditional Republican circles.
“He’s never gotten a vote in the state of North Carolina,” she said. “This is a case of name recognition, which I absolutely have.”
Asked what issues she believes will resonate most with voters, Morrow said safety is top of mind, especially near Charlotte, along with the economy and education. She said the biggest lesson she learned from 2024 is that voters have more common ground than they’re often led to believe.
She told Cabarrus Republicans she’s already proved she can win as an underdog and said she’s the party’s strongest option in a general election matchup.
This story was originally published January 13, 2026 at 10:07 AM with the headline "Can Michele Morrow repeat her 2024 upset in this year’s Republican Senate primary?."
