RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina next year said Friday that he's ending his bid now that Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley has entered the race with President Donald Trump's support.
Several months ago, Andy Nilsson revealed his candidacy for the Senate seat currently held by GOP incumbent Thom Tillis. Tillis announced in late June, after clashing with Trump, that he wouldn't seek a third term.
Last week, Whatley, a North Carolina native and resident, entered the race for the GOP nomination, already holding what Trump wrote on social media as his "Complete and Total Endorsement.”
Now Nilsson, a former furniture company owner who once ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor, says in a news release that he had decided to suspend his campaign.
Nilsson said Trump’s endorsement of Whatley “played a central role in my decision. I respect the President’s desire to go in a different direction, even if I have questions about his choice.”
Whatley's campaign launch July 31 appeared to set the stage for a possible general election showdown between him and former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who announced his candidacy three days earlier.
The seat in the highly competitive state could decide whether Democrats regain a majority in the chamber. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the November 2026 elections.
Similar to Nilsson's departure, Cooper's candidacy prompted ex-U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel to suspend his monthslong campaign for the Democratic nomination. Wiley endorsed Cooper.
Nilsson, who helps coach football and teaches at a Winston-Salem high school, did not mention any endorsement from him in Friday’s statement but said he would “work hard to keep this Senate seat in the hands of a conservative.”
Nilsson highlighted his effort to unseat Tillis, whom he said “had lost touch with his base," and that "mine was the first campaign to call him out.” Nilsson's political career also has included working as a campaign staffer for gubernatorial candidate Richard Vinroot and then-congressional candidate Richard Burr.
Winnowing the field won't necessarily prevent Cooper or Whatley from avoiding March primary elections for their respective nominations. Republican Don Brown, a writer and former Navy officer, remains a candidate for the GOP nomination. And official candidate filing occurs in December.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley speaks during his campaign launch event for North Carolina's open U.S. Senate seat, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in Gastonia, N.C. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to meet Thursday at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by then-President Nicolás Maduro before the United States captured him in an audacious military raid this month.
Less than two weeks after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, Trump will host the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, having already dismissed her credibility to run Venezuela and raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in the country.
“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump told Reuters in an interview about Machado. “I’ve seen her on television. I think we’re just going to talk basics.”
The meeting comes as Trump and his top advisers have signaled their willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and along with others in the deposed leader's inner circle remain in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
Rodríguez herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move reportedly made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela. She had sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key advisers like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a political gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government. She also intends to have a meeting in the Senate on Thursday afternoon.
Despite her alliance with Republicans, Trump was quick to snub her following Maduro’s capture. Just hours afterward, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump coveted. She has since thanked Trump and offered to share the prize with him, a move that has been rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Janetsky reported from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
