Lara Trump will not seek a seat in the U.S. Senate for her home state of North Carolina , a spokesperson for the president’s daughter-in-law told the Daily Mail. Instead, she will support her former colleague and Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley in his bid for the seat. ‘Lara worked side by side with Whatley at the RNC for this big election victory last November. North Carolina will be lucky to have him,’ a spokesperson said.

In reality, Trump’s decision to pass on the marquee race is a considerable setback for Republicans, who will instead have to settle for a much less splashy candidate that lacks the powerful surname of the sitting president. The former RNC co-chair is choosing to remain in her current lucrative media role hosting her interview-based show My View with Lara Trump , which airs on Fox News on Saturday nights.

Lara Trump lives in Florida with her husband, Eric, and their two children Luke, 7, and Carolina, 5. She is oftentimes spotted in Washington, D.C. conducting interviews with administration officials to air on her weekend show. She kept her future options open, however, saying: ‘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.’

It’s expected that President Trump will back Whatley’s bid for a U.S. Senate seat representing North Carolina in the upper chamber. After the 2024 election, it was rumored Lara was also considering making a bid for Sen. Marco Rubio’s open seat in Florida when he was chosen to become Trump’s secretary of state. But in December 2024, Lara announced that she would not take on the role and shortly after that her new Fox show was announced.

Speaking with the Daily Mail in January, Lara disclosed that her father-in-law ‘was a little upset’ when she said she wouldn’t seek a U.S. Senate seat for Florida. ‘The only person that Donald Trump wanted to see there was probably me,’ she explained. Although now a Florida resident, Lara is originally from North Carolina.

Sen. Thom Tillis announced in June he would not seek reelection as he laid out objections to the president’s ‘Big Beautiful’ tax and spending bill, earning the ire of the MAGA base which threatened to oust him. Republicans are desperate to hold onto their House and Senate majorities in the 2026 midterm elections and North Carolina is one of the critical swing states on the map.

While the state has fell consistently in the Republican column in recent years, Democrats believe the open Tillis seat is one of their best chances for a pick-up. Whatley’s imminent candidacy was first reported by Politico. Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is also expected to launch a bid, setting the two up for a high-stakes, high-cost general election match-up.

Whatley was elected RNC chair in March 2024. He led the party alongside co-chair Lara Trump to sweeping GOP victories in last year’s elections. Whatley’s donor connections will help launch him to the Senate seat in what could be one of the most expensive races in next year’s midterms. It’s unclear whether Whatley’s candidacy will generate the level of excitement among the MAGA base that a Lara Trump campaign would have guaranteed.